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LIBRARY QF CONGRESS. 
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Chap.P.\.. Copyright No. __. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



CURRENT QUESTIONS 



c 



URRENT QUESTIONS 
FOR THINKING MEN 



By 
ROBERT STUART MAC ARTHUR 





Philadelphia 

Bmerfcan baptist publication Society 
MDcccxcvm 

L. 

TWO COPIES RECl 



2nd COPY, \ ^ rV 2> 
1898, 



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4936 



Copyright 1898 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



ffrom tbe Society's own ff)resa 



Go 

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mang of 

Gbese BoDresses were oelivereD 

Ubis Booft 
f6 BffectionatelE Beoicateo 



NOTE 



The papers contained in this book were deliv- 
ered at different times and under different circum- 
stances, as will appear in detail in the footnotes 
accompanying them. The abiding importance of 
the themes discussed, as well as a desire very gen- 
erally expressed, has prompted the gathering of 
them together in this more permanent form. It 
is hoped that in this form whatever of good is in 
them may find a more potent voice, and win in 
the wider audience thus addressed, a friendly 

hearing. 

R. S. MacA. 

Calvary Study, January, 1898. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. The Scholar in the World 1 1 

II. Characteristics of True Culture .... 38 

III. Christianity and the Secular Spirit . . . 67 

IV. Reasons for Being a Baptist 89 

V. Baptist Polity and Historic Creeds . . .114 

VI. Historic Baptist Principles 136 

VII. Partial Unification by Possible Elimina- 
tion 171 

VIII. Greater Baptist Efficiency 189 v 

IX. Pressing Needs of Foreign Fields .... 214 V 

X. Establishing Our Work ... • 245 

XI. The Organization of a Church . . . . . 271 

XII. The Development of the Church . . . .291 

XIII. The Selection of a Church 310 

XIV. The Christian Year 325 

XV. Separation Between Church and State . . 342 

XVI. The Regeneration of a Race 365 

XVII. The True Function of the Minister . . . 395 



CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 1 

THE subject to which attention is called this 
evening is, The Scholar in the World. Is 
the term scholar synonymous with the term college 
graduate ? This cannot be affirmed. There are 
scholars who are not college graduates ; and there 
are college graduates who are not scholars. Some 
graduates have not the habits, tastes, or instincts of 
scholars. It is not the business of a college to fur- 
nish brains. A college is a mill, and the character 
of the flour which comes from the sieve depends 
largely upon the quality of the grain which goes 
into the hopper. No college faculty can get some- 
thing out of nothing. You can highly polish maple 
or marble ; you cannot polish cheese or chalk. It 
has been often and conclusively demonstrated that 
money cannot purchase capacity. A fool brayed 
in the college mortar, even with the best presiden- 
tial pestle, is a fool still. Doubtless he will be 
profited by the braying ; somewhat of his foolish- 

1 Delivered at the Commencement of the Columbian University, 
Washington, D. C, June 9, 1896. 

II 



12 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

ness will have departed from him by the time of his 
graduation. The man who by the special grace of 
the faculty dangles along at the tail of his class gets 
some good in the dangling. In the college class- 
room he takes in as much of the literary atmosphere 
as his contracted intellectual lungs will admit. In 
association with those who are scholars he takes in 
by friction as much as his rhinocerial epidermis can 
absorb. If after the advantages of a college course 
there is so great stupidity, how enormous would 
that stupidity have been had there been no college 
course. The stupidity is not because of, but in 
spite of, the training received. 

On the other hand, those who are scholars but 
not college graduates are such in spite of their dis- 
advantages. Given the college training, and how 
much more complete, symmetrical, and polished 
their scholarship would be. All men who are made 
at all are self-made ; no college can make a man. 
Colleges simply help men to make themselves. A 
college sharpens nature's tools and teaches their 
right use. You may with one hand hold on the 
grindstone the chisel with which you are to carve 
out fame and fortune ; and you may turn the stone 
with the other hand. But if you could hold the 
chisel with both hands while the college faculty 
turned the stone, your chances for a fine edged tool 
would be wonderfully improved. Unfortunately 
scholar and graduate are not equivalent terms ; but 
for the purposes of this discussion, we shall regard 
them as synonymous. 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 1 3 

THE SCHOLAR IN BUSINESS. 

Consider then the scholar in business life. For 
business colleges it is difficult to have much re- 
spect. For colleges which mean business it is im- 
possible not to have great admiration. Scholar- 
ship is needed in business life to-day as never be- 
fore ; first, because the relations of business life are 
now so far-reaching. The world is both larger and 
smaller than ever before ; it is larger when we re- 
gard its necessary points of contact with our daily 
lives, and smaller when we regard the facility 
with which the contact is made. There are no 
hermit nations. Inspired by a unifying and sym- 
pathetic impulse the nations have risen above 
their former boundaries, and have mingled their 
liberated waters in one great ocean of inter- 
national life and Christian endeavor. Steamships 
and railways make distant continents near neigh- 
bors. Telegraphs and telephones have made the 
world a whispering gallery. They have changed 
the business, the diplomacy, the civilization of the 
century. They repeat on a gigantic scale the mar- 
vels of each man's own nervous system. 

With bowed head and uplifted heart all Christen- 
dom stood a few years ago by the bedside of Gen- 
eral Garfield while he was fighting his terrible bat- 
tle. In the capitals of the world his pulsebeats 
were counted ; princes and peasants listened with 
mingled hope and fear for his heart throbs. All 
the world was kin as it watched General Grant 



14 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

fighting the only enemy whom he could not con- 
quer. Such kinship was impossible a generation 
ago ; such community of knowledge and interest 
will do much to unite the world in the bonds of per- 
petual brotherhood. Every morning the ends of 
the earth meet in the paper at our breakfast tables. 
In this day merchants deal with peoples of various 
climes, colors, languages, and religions. Soon the 
Congo Valley will be as familiar to our thought and 
speech as is the valley of the Mississippi. Already 
goods are shipped from our ports to the corners of 
the earth ; already are new branches of trade pre- 
paring to enter these new and vast fields of com- 
mercial enterprise. India is as near to-day as 
Liverpool was a generation ago. To-day a mer- 
chant or manufacturer ought to know the history, 
the products, the needs, the habits, and the tastes of 
at least half a dozen nations. The successful busi- 
ness man of a past generation, if he followed the 
old methods, would be a helpless dwarf amid the 
tremendous giants of to-day. Does a man tell me 
that a business man to-day does not need scholar- 
ship both vast and varied ? Then I ask where has 
he lived ? In what sunless hole has he burrowed ? 
Our most kingly merchant princes find an ever- 
widening sphere for the employment of all their 
faculties and abilities in the tremendous rush and 
roar of the world-embracing possibilities in the 
marts of trade and commerce of our day. 

But, again, scholarship is needed in business life 
because it is the open door to other spheres of 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 1 5 

intellectual activity. Business men now abound in 
the halls of State and national legislation. The 
wealth acquired in business gives influence, some- 
times legitimate and sometimes not, in nominating 
conventions and at polling booths. Not in name, 
but not the less in fact, does wealth buy seats in 
legislative halls. The same thing sometimes is true, 
it is more than hinted, in regard to selections for 
cabinets and appointments for foreign missions. 
For some years the tendency has been to push 
business men into these positions of prominence 
and power. The preparation and presentation of 
bills come into their hands. Clearness of thought 
and forcefulness of statement thus become an ab- 
solute necessity. There can be no clearness of 
speech except there be first clearness of thought ; 
inaccuracy of speaking is always preceded by 
looseness of thinking. " What you know you can 
tell," is a remark as truthful as it used to be familiar 
to students while under President Martin B. Ander- 
son's instruction. The training of the parliamentary 
orator as a great and clear thinker is the first step 
in his career. It is a matter of vast importance. 
No matter how great and varied the gifts of nature 
may be, they need to be supplemented by the 
broadest and most accurate training attainable. 
Genius, real or imagined, which denies the neces- 
sity of adequate preparation for hard work in any 
business career is a doubtful or dangerous posses- 
sion. Business men are in, and must continue to 
be in, political life. This is inevitable. Young men 



1 6 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

in preparing for business life should prepare also 
for that to which it may lead. Their scholarship 
should be broad, accurate, and usable alike in their 
business life and in their political career. 

Again, scholarship in business life is necessary in 
order to enjoy a well-earned leisure. Success in a 
business life brings wealth ; wealth makes leisure 
possible ; and leisure to be a blessing, must be 
associated with some degree of intellectual culture. 
Wealth and ignorance make a sorry team. The 
more his wealth exalts an ignorant man the more 
sadly conspicuous does his ignorance become. Such 
a man can only "talk shop." He has no intellec- 
tual resources. He has no knowledge of and no 
enjoyment in books. He may buy them by the 
yard, because it is "the thing" to have a library ; 
but to him they are, for the most part, in an un- 
known tongue. The man is in danger of drifting 
into a fast life, or of becoming the hopeless dupe 
of designing men, or of sinking into an idiotic 
ennuye. These are the men and the families who, 
so far as in them lies, make America ridiculous in 
all European resorts. These are the men who fur- 
nish material for the well-deserved satires on our 
circles of society in which " Mr. Newrich " is the 
conspicuous figure. They give the " Buntling Balls " 
of the hour. They are the travelers who from Euro- 
pean wanderings return : 

Across Atlantic' s many-sounding deep, 

Borne safe between the stanch Cunarder's ribs, 

Wave-furrowing, tempest-baffling, huge of bulk. 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 1 7 

God pity Alonzo, Anastasia, and Jane Buntling ! 
The brainless and moneyless dudes who enjoy 
their hospitality and make fun of their stupidity 
as they sing : 

« ' Old man, do not be nonsensical 
In your views about New York ; 
You are needlessly forensical 
For a potentate in pork, ' ' 

are more to be blamed but not more to be pitied 
than their ignorant and ambitious hosts. The man 
with learning will know how to enjoy leisure. The 
art of the world will find in him an admiration 
which his previous knowledge has prepared him to 
bestow. In poverty he has within himself resources 
of inestimable value. In wealth, even though it 
comes suddenly, he has self-poise ; he has taste, 
culture, enjoyment. It is simply a question of man- 
hood. Shall a man be broad-minded, many-sided, 
and symmetrical, or shall he sink to what, I sup- 
pose, the Concord philosophers would call a con- 
dition of "thingness." God help us all to under- 
stand the grandeur of being men and women, 
disciples of true culture, and heirs of eternal glory. 

THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICAL LIFE. 

Let us now look at the scholar in political life. 
The whole range of political life is much in need 
of elevation. We have grown weary of the tyran- 
nical reign of the corner groggery and ward pol- 
itician — both positions being often represented by 



1 8 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

one and the same man. We ought to insist that 
some classes of men should at least get rid of a 
little of their brogue before they attempt to lord it 
over native-born Americans. As I myself am not 
a native-born American I may make this remark. 
There is almost enough in American politics to 
justify a lugubrious and pessimistic allusion to the 
subject. But we and not our stars are to blame 
that we are underlings. Our best men must go 
into politics. The worse the condition of affairs 
the more are the best men needed. It is worse 
than useless to stand aloof, in white-robed idleness, 
and declaim against the "dirty pool" of politics. 
Of course it is dirty ; some men make their living 
by keeping it so. They will never purify it. They 
are perfectly willing to have you declaim against it, 
so long as you only declaim. Go yourself to the 
primaries, to the polls, to all centers of political 
power. Culture and religion which are too good 
to be used for the political welfare of the people 
are useless adornments, are worthless impedi- 
menta. Here is a sphere for the true scholar ; 
and it is a sphere worthy of his noblest ambitions. 
The politician needs scholarship that as a speaker 
he may be popular with the uneducated. It is 
often said that an educated man cannot so address 
an audience as to interest uneducated hearers. If 
a public speaker fails it is not because he is edu- 
cated, but because he is only half-educated. The 
aim of education is not to mystify but to simplify. 
The educated man is taller than the uneducated. 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 



It is his business to take down difficult truths and 
make them so plain that the uneducated mind can 
readily grasp and firmly hold them. It is his 
business to make an intelligent diagnosis of the 
mental capacity of his audience and then prescribe 
his truth in such doses as the facts may require 
and demand. It is his business in speaking to a 
popular audience to take the truth he wishes to 
impart out of its technical forms of phraseology 
and put it into plain, everyday speech. The man 
who cannot do that is uneducated, even although 
he may have the diplomas of many schools. He 
is unintelligible because he is unintelligent ; he is 
grandiloquent and obscure because he is stupid. 
He must know how — to use a word which Oliver 
Wendell Holmes uses in this sense — to " depolar- 
ize " his thought, taking it out of professional ter- 
minology and putting it into plain speech. 

The speaker or writer who uses the language of 
the shop, the trade, or the schools in addressing a 
popular audience shows not his wealth but his pov- 
erty of thought and speech. " How much learn- 
ing," Archbishop Leigh ton used to say, " it takes to 
be simple." In my early ministry, fresh from the 
theological seminary, I stupidly threw at the con- 
gregation these two words "supralapsarianism" and 
"sublapsarianism." Had I maliciously thrown at 
the people the pulpit Bible or hymn book, I could 
scarcely have produced a greater sensation. Fuller 
knowledge enables a man to take the meaning 
out of such words and give it to the public in 



20 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

simple forms of speech. "Big words" when ad- 
dressing a popular and not a technical audience, 
are a sure sign of ignorance. The terminology of 
any science, art, or profession may be used, of 
course, when addressing the students of that sci- 
ence, art, or profession. The commonest mob does 
not relish the shirt -sleeved, grammar -breaking, 
word-slinging style of the sand-lots orator. The 
most ignorant assemblies know better than to enjoy 
an insult to their common sense. 

Few men could better address a New York mob 
than Horatio Seymour. The crowd understood 
him perfectly ; indeed, there are many who honestly 
thought that he was understood too well, when on a 
certain memorable occasion he addressed the rioters 
as "my friends." He never forgot his dignity, and 
his scholarship, nor his elegance in dress or ad- 
dress. He was sufficiently well educated to adapt 
his knowledge to the capacity of his average hearer. 
There are few speakers in the political field to-day 
who can more fully interest and inspire the usual 
political crowd than Chauncey M. Depew. At the 
same time men of the highest culture are charmed 
by his logical reasoning, his accurate knowledge, 
and his polished oratory. The names of many 
more in political, legal, and other walks of life could 
be cited to illustrate this point. 

The same principles apply to pulpit oratory. 
From Chrysostom to Wesley and Spurgeon the 
great preachers were those whom the common peo- 
ple heard gladly ; they were at the same time men 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 21 

at whose feet culture could and did learn lessons of 
wisdom. Mr. Spurgeon was in many well-under- 
stood respects the greatest preacher since the days of 
the apostles. He was always simple and forceful ; 
he was sometimes witty and homely ; but never did 
he forget the glory of his message nor the character 
which becomes the messenger. Within his very 
much smaller circle Mr. Moody is educated ; and 
his success bears a close relation to his education. 
.Regarding the subjects of which chiefly he speaks 
he is educated. His remarkable power is in spite 
of the fact that often he mispronounces words and 
violates grammatical rules. He who "spake as 
never man spake" was heard gladly by the com- 
mon people, and yet even as a boy the learned 
doctors were astonished at the questions he asked 
and the answers he gave. 

Scholarship is needed in political life rightly to 
apprehend and forcefully to discuss the questions 
now agitating public thought. Great questions are 
before us ; their discussion cannot much longer be 
postponed. Socialism, often passing over into an- 
archism, clamors for a hearing. Let it be heard. 
Talking will do its advocates great good. Discus- 
sion of subjects largely erroneous liberates their 
truths, which become the antidote to their errors. 
Discussion of all political heresies will manifest the 
element of truth which they contain ; and at the 
same time it will expose their falsity in statement 
and their fallacy in reasoning. The temperance 
question in its political aspects must be discussed. 



22 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The tariff question must be discussed ; so also must 
questions of restricted immigration, of protected 
suffrage, of civil service reform, of arbitration, and 
of annexation. These discussions must not be on 
the basis of narrow partisan politics. Here there 
is a field for the exercise of the broadest scholar- 
ship, the profoundest reasoning, and the wisest 
statesmanship. Where are the statesmen compe- 
tent to deal with these and similar questions? The 
very name statesman has almost become a reproach. 
When the infamous Tweed was asked to name his 
occupation he replied, "statesman"; when asked 
his religion he said, "none." The latter answer was 
certainly correct. To-day he has his imitators. 
Ignorance and irreligion are marked features of the 
" practical statesman." From this sort of states- 
manship, scholarship and religion are virtually di- 
vorced. "Them literary fellows" have been held 
in great contempt by the average statesman. Well, 
the contempt is mutual. Some of the literary, 
political dilettanti are worthy of the contempt in 
which they are held by others than the "practical 
politician." But in politics there is a sphere for 
scholarship that is associated with a manliness which 
is worthy of all honor. The man of broad scholar- 
ship, of commanding eloquence, and of spotless 
character has to-day a boundless field, a sure tri- 
umph, and an enduring fame in American politics. 
We are weary of putting men up as candidates 
merely because they are "available"; and often 
available chiefly because they are unknowing and 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 23 

unknown. Both parties to-day need leaders — lead- 
ers of scholarship, statesmanship, eloquence, and 
character. Where are the men to be found ? 

Political life in our day is not so commonplace 
as many suppose ; the heroic days of the republic 
are not all in the past. We are in the midst of 
wars and rumors of wars. "Happy is the nation 
that has no history" has become a proverb. But 
the nation that has no history has not much of 
anything; it has no statesmen, no thinkers, no 
orators. The comparatively recent volume entitled 
"Representative American Orations" shows clearly 
that the causes which make history possible make 
statesmanship and oratory certain. Webster truly 
said, "True eloquence cannot be brought from 
afar ; it must exist in the man, in the subject, and 
in the occasion." Our revolutionary days awoke 
and immortalized the voice of Patrick Henry. 
Discussions connected with the formulation of the 
Constitution called out the powers of Jefferson and 
Hamilton. The War of 1 8 1 2 gave us the speeches 
of John Randolph and Henry Clay. The expo- 
sition of the Constitution gave us the wily Calhoun 
and the gigantic Webster. The antislavery discus- 
sions gave us Garrison and Phillips, Seward and 
Sumner. In the city of Rochester, N. Y., Seward 
said : "I know and you know that a revolution has 
begun ; I know and all the world knows that revo- 
lution never goes backward." 

The war gave us Lincoln, Grant, and many more 
who are among the immortals. In many of these 



24 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

men we have grand illustrations of how scholarship, 
patriotism, and character became the handmaids of 
martial, political, and patriotic power and glory. 
These men were giants. Who to-day is worthy to 
be the successors of leaders so illustrious? So we 
often ask; but the resources of the Republic are 
not exhausted. Should similar occasions arise, 
similar leaders will arise also. In every crisis of 
our national life God has given us wise, heroic, and 
patriotic leaders. He will not desert us in future 
national trials should they arise. 

When we look across the Atlantic, we see what 
a practical, general, and honored place scholarship 
has in political life. The list of names is so long 
and so brilliant that one does not know where to 
begin or to end its examination. Not to go too 
far back, we take the name of William Pitt, who 
was as famous for scholarship in his boyhood as for 
his imposing appearance, attractive oratory, and 
irreproachable character in his manhood. We 
have the names of Sir Robert Peel, who upon his 
graduation at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1808, took 
a double first-class. The Earl of Derby, gradu- 
ating in 1 8 19, gained the Latin verse prize, and 
soon became a debater of the very first rank. Tall 
in figure, commanding in gesture, with a voice 
which rang out with tremendous power, he was 
a man to be admired and feared. In the midst 
of a career of great activity he found time to 
cultivate his scholarly tastes, and his later years 
were devoted to translating Homer's "Iliad," two 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 25 

volumes of which were published in blank verse 
in 1864. 

We think of Lord Macaulay in connection with 
literature rather than in connection with statesman- 
ship ; but he would have been famous as a states- 
man had he not been so brilliant as a writer. At the 
age of eighteen, at Trinity College, Cambridge, he 
had acquired a great reputation both as a debater 
and a scholar. We know that twice he won the 
chancellor's medal; first, in 1819, for a poem on 
"Pompeii," and, a year later, for a poem on 
"Evening." While war secretary he composed 
his magnificent war ballads, "The Lays of Ancient 
Rome." His scholarship was brilliant, and his 
literary acquisitions were simply prodigious. He 
was an immense accession to the Whig party; 
indeed, his history has been called "a huge Whig 
pamphlet." His nephew, himself an illustration of 
the scholar in politics, has given us in his uncle's 
"Life and Letters" one of the most fascinating 
biographies of this generation. 

The Duke of Argyle adds to the glory of his an- 
cestral name by his books, which unite in beautiful 
harmony high scholarship with lowly Christian faith. 
Authorship and statesmanship almost equally di- 
vided the honors of the dashing leader of English 
Jingoism. What shall we say of Disraeli's great 
rival, the foremost man in the world to-day, the 
gigantic Gladstone. He closed his brilliant college 
career at Christ Church, Oxford, in 183 1, where he 
took a double first-class degree. The next year 



26 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

he entered the House of Commons. Well might 
Macaulay, in 1838, speak of him as "a young man 
of unblemished character, the rising hope of those 
stern and unbending Tories." Behold him in 1858 
publishing in three volumes his elaborate work on 
"Homer and the Homeric Age," and in 1875 his 
" Homeric Synchronism." But we cannot follow 
him along the line of great statesmanship and 
equally great scholarship. This grand man stirs 
us profoundly ; he arouses our utmost enthusiasm. 
In him we have the able statesman, the great 
scholar, and the humble Christian happily blended. 
He is peerless in the w T hole world to-day. He 
grows grander as the shadows of evening gather 
about him. His name will live long in the history 
of literature and statesmanship. He is the un- 
crowned king of Britain and of the world to-day. 
God give the "old man eloquent" his benediction 
in the closing years of his heroic life ! 

But again, we need scholarship in political life 
that our country may be rightly represented abroad. 
Appointments to foreign courts should be made 
on other grounds than the payment of political debts. 
Walpole long ago said that an ambassador is a man 
sent abroad to lie for his country. If all politicians 
who are adepts in that art were sent abroad, the 
number of applicants for offices at home would be 
greatly reduced. In these foreign positions certain 
lines of scholarship are absolutely necessary to the 
preservation of the dignity of the country. Here, 
at least, Civil Service Reform should have its com- 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 2*] 

plete illustration. We gratefully acknowledge the 
superb service and high character of some of our 
ambassadors to foreign courts. But we must also 
with equal honesty mourn over the incapacity of 
others. It is simply ridiculous to send to foreign 
countries men ignorant of their language, their his- 
tory, their laws, and their social customs. We need 
a school for the training of men for these positions. 
Let Columbian University be that school, and let 
us lift the whole range of political life, making for- 
eign appointments on the ground of fitness and not 
as a reward for party services. We have too few 
men in political life who can fill prominent places 
at European courts. We have been too often humili- 
ated alike by the ignorance and the character of men 
who misrepresented their country. 

Along the whole line of political life we must 
strive to raise the standard of political morality. 
Our motto should be : " Fewer elections and better." 
This nation is now too great to be disturbed by the 
excitements which quadrennial national elections 
inevitably produce. Its volume of business is too 
great to be thus imperiled. Its money interests 
are too sensitive to be thus agitated, and its time 
is too precious to be thus squandered. The returns 
in increased knowledge of political affairs and in 
oratorical skill thus developed are not an adequate 
compensation for the injuries which all forms of 
business receive. Let the presidential term be six 
or eight years, and let no president be eligible for 
re-election. Then the evils of so frequent elections 



28 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

will be avoided, and presidents will attend to their 
proper duties instead of spending so much" time in 
laying plans for re-election. 

We must also insist upon an improved civil serv- 
ice, both at home and abroad. Present efforts in 
that direction show marked progress and give high 
hopes for the future. We must have the best men 
in the community take an active interest in politics, 
beginning with the primaries ; we must insist upon 
scholarship on the part of the men who represent us 
in the halls of State and national legislation ; but 
most of all we must insist on the recognition of high 
moral principles in all departments of political life. 
We must insist on this great saying of a brilliant man, 
" Nothing can be politically right which is morally 
wrong." We must believe it. God rules. Right 
wins. Wrong shall yet go to the cross. Right shall 
yet reign on the throne. Righteousness exalteth a 
nation ; but sin is the reproach of any people. A 
brilliant senator sneered at the Golden Rule and the 
Ten Commandments in politics. They were in this 
connection only an " iridescent dream" ; well, he has 
been permitted to remain at home and study the 
iridescence of his dream while other men are striv- 
ing to bring this ideal condition into actual experi- 
ence. The altar of Almighty God must stand be- 
side the throne of a nation's power. Remove that 
altar and the throne will tremble, totter, tumble. 

Finally, let me speak of the scholar in profes- 
sional life. 

It is common to speak of the professions of medi- 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 29 

cine, law, and theology as the learned professions ; 
but the first two are in danger of losing this honor. 
Look over the names of the graduates of almost 
any school of medicine or law, and you will see how 
small is the proportion of college graduates among 
them. It is sad that so many boys, fresh from the 
farm, are rushed through a brief course of study in 
some impecunious and ambitious medical college, 
and are then turned adrift to practise their igno- 
rance on an innocent and unsuspecting community. 
To a considerable degree this is true also of schools 
of law ; although in the case of both these schools 
some improvement has recently been made. Schools 
of theology have always had a higher standard, and 
lately it has been made higher still. At times it 
seemed that the ministry would be the only learned 
profession, in the technical sense in which the term 
has so long been used. 

You say, I magnify mine office. You are right. 
The Apostle Paul did so. I believe in this kind of 
apostolic succession. I plead for a higher grade of 
scholarship in all the professions — and this for good 
reasons. One reason is in the unscholarly tendency 
of necessary professional drudgery. There is an 
immense amount of this in all forms of professional 
work. The ideal and the actual in a man's profes- 
sion differ widely. There is danger that a profession 
may become simply a trade. In order that a man 
may make his actual professional life approach his 
ideal he must enter it with much general knowledge 
and special scholarship. We are, as a rule, in too 



30 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

great haste to begin our work. We ought to re- 
member that a man has begun his work when he has 
begun in earnest to prepare for it. Men want to be 
in the ministry ; they say that they want to be at 
work. Opportunities for the noblest in sanctified 
personal culture and in service for others are all 
about them. They neglect present opportunity in 
a dreamy hope of great things to come in some 
misty future. Never was there greater folly. 
Christ bided his time. He waited thirty years be- 
fore performing a miracle ; this delay was itself al- 
most a miracle. Whatever ripens fast decays soon. 
The element of time must enter into all true culture. 
Mental products must ripen. Soft, liquid, mellow 
notes can come only from old violins. Boy preachers 
are seldom men preachers. Undue development 
is a monstrosity. This haste is a symptom of the 
times. It is dangerous. It must be resisted. 
The man who thinks he is a genius and need not 
go through the ordinary process of preparation is 
much in need of going into the Solomonic mortar 
to be brayed. There is danger that he will soon 
be braying in some church pulpit, if he be not 
brayed beneath some college pestle. Perhaps this 
man points to Horace Greeley, to Spurgeon, to 
Moody. Is he quite sure that he is a Greeley, a Spur- 
geon, or a Moody ? 

Out of this bumptiousness comes the desire for 
" soft electives " in the college course. A tendency 
of our life is to get something for nothing, some- 
thing without paying the price in hard work. This 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 3 1 

tendency shows itself in "short cuts" to profes- 
sional titles and employments ; it advertises itself in 
wild-cat speculations in business ; it shouts itself 
hoarse for cheap, and so dishonest, money ; it runs 
mad in various forms of gambling. If you want 
pebbles, go out to the street and find them by the 
handful ; but if you want diamonds you must dig 
for them. Recently one of the most prominent 
preachers and scholars in America said in my hear- 
ing that " Harvard's course is in education what 
quackery is in the regular practice of medicine." 
Perhaps that remark was an exaggeration, but the 
tendency is in that direction. The trend is toward 
a wild empiricism. It will make charlatans but not 
scholars. It is a species of educational dilettante- 
ism. 

This method of education misunderstands the 
function of a college. The academy gives instruc- 
tion in the elements, the college in the principles, 
and the professional school in the applications of 
education to the practical uses of life. Let the col- 
lege lay the broad foundation ; on that foundation 
let the professional structure be erected. In that 
foundation the classics must have the honored place. 
Say what you will, the students of the arts course 
and the students of the scientific course in any col- 
lege are very different classes of men ; the differ- 
ence is largely in favor of the former. Explain it 
how you may, the fact remains. The tree of classical 
knowledge which has borne such glorious fruit all 
through the centuries is not now to be cut down by 



32 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

any empirical axe. From that tree we may have 
to lop off a twig here and there, on that tree we 
may have to graft a branch here and there, as the 
wisdom and experience of our best educators may 
suggest, but, thank God, the tree will stand. Men 
talk of science. But why do they limit the word 
to natural science ? Is not the study of language 
a study of science ? Is not the study of history a 
study of science ? Is not the study of mental phi- 
losophy a study of science ? 

It is this unseemly haste to enter professional 
life which leads to this tampering with the college 
course. Wait, young men ; bide your time. You 
owe it to yourselves not to degrade your profession. 
Rather than make the course shorter, I would 
make it longer. The standard of admission ought 
to be higher; the course of preparation ought to 
be longer. It is better for a boy to enter college 
a year over eighteen than a year under that age, 
although I know the tendency now is to rush him 
through when young. There should be broad 
culture in history and in general literature before 
entering college. But, even then, is a boy of that 
age fit to choose his course of study? To ask the 
question is to answer it. In this whole subject 
there is a golden mean. Let the boy enter thus 
well prepared, let two years be given to the studies 
in the regular course and a certain standing be 
attained, then let there be an option — -under wise 
advisers — not of studies but of courses of study. 
After graduation, let the professional studies be 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 33 

pursued. After this preparation, the drudgery of 
professional work will not entirely destroy scholarly 
tastes ; and still the true student will feel that he is 
only a child playing on the shore, while the great 
ocean of possibility stretches before him into infinity. 
Scholarship is necessary in professional life in 
order that a man may the sooner be master of all 
the truth which his profession has discovered. 
This is a worthy ambition. Any lower ambition is 
unworthy of a worthy man. The young painter 
may not expect to excel Raphael, nor the young 
sculptor Angelo, but their lofty attainments will 
stimulate him to nobler endeavors. " Young man," 
said Emerson, " hitch your wagon to a star." 
That is old, but it is pertinent. Master the last re- 
sults attained in your profession ; stand abreast of 
its latest discoveries. You owe this to yourself, to 
your clients, to your patients, to your parishioners. 
But if you are to have a fair fight with inevitable 
indolence, with unavoidable drudgery, and with am- 
bitious competitors, you must not go into the con- 
flict handicapped with ignorance. You must not be 
weighted in the race. You must run light if you 
would run fast. You will need all you know ; you 
could use ten times as much as you know. The 
man who ceases to grow begins to die. Not to ad- 
vance is to retrograde. Many men in various pro- 
fessions died long ago. They have not yet made 
the discovery, but their friends have. They are not 
buried, but they are certainly dead. As unburied 
corpses they walk about among the living. 

c 



34 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

A man must use his college tools or they will be- 
come rusty. To master a profession to-day one 
must enter it thoroughly equipped. Success to-day 
is no child's play. He who will win the wreath of 
victory must run a brave race, and he must feel the 
prick of many a thorn. A man may as well count 
the cost before he natters himself with the hope of 
a certain speedy triumph in his professional career. 
Ten out of a hundred may win a respectable suc- 
cess ; perhaps five out of a hundred a great success. 
Is a young man quite sure that he will be one even 
of the ten ? Can he afford to neglect any securable 
aid? How many really great orators have there 
been in the world? About one in each five hun- 
dred years. Is a man sure that he is to be the one? 
To step into the front rank a man must have good 
natural abilities, he must have high acquired attain- 
ments, and he must have the only genius worth 
having — the ability and willingness to do tremen- 
dously hard work. I would not discourage any 
man. I simply say that no man can afford in this 
day to dispense with a single ounce of power. So 
prepared, go up, with God's blessing, and take the 
prizes which your profession offers. 

But again, scholarship is needed in professional 
life in order that men may pay the debt they owe 
to their profession. No man has a right to be a 
drone, a dunce, or even a dwarf in his profession. 
No man should submit to be borne along on the 
current of professional opinion. If the course 
flows in the wrong direction, he ought to stem it ; 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD 35 

if it flows in the right direction, he ought to swell 
it. What right has a man to tax the patience, 
excite the pity, or merit the contempt of his pro- 
fessional brethren? Some professions are carrying 
along dead-beats enough to fill an ordinary ceme- 
tery, if only they could be induced to go to their 
own place. What can be done with these men? 
The fault is not in their stars, but in themselves, that 
they are dunces. They would be as dead as they 
are if called by some other professional name. 
Lazy men must greatly tax the patience of God. 
He has no place — at least no good place — here or 
hereafter for thriftless, shiftless, hangers-on to the 
various professions. But it is not enough that a 
man should not lie down in helpless, hopeless 
supineness on his profession. He should lift it on 
his manly shoulders ; he should feel his indebted- 
ness to it so much that he would make its indebt- 
edness to him unspeakably great. 

Think how much Blackstone, Kent, Story, and 
Marshall, as commentators, did for the profession 
of law ! Webster and many others recognized 
their obligations and met them in other forms of 
service. Think what Harvey, Willard Parker, J. 
Marion Sims, Koch, and others did for medicine ! 
Some day some of your own alumni may be men- 
tioned in this category. The influence on theo- 
logical science of Augustine, Anselm, Calvin, 
Luther, and a hundred more, as commentators, 
preachers, and philanthropists, neither man nor 
angel can estimate. So of earnest workers in the 



36 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

professions of music, painting, sculpture, architec- 
ture, and many other arts and sciences. Each has 
its heroes and martyrs, each its diademed victors, 
its glorified saints, and now its tireless toilers. But 
in order that a man may enlarge the boundary of 
the known in his profession, he must be able to 
come up to that boundary. You must know what 
has been discovered before you can discover new 
truths. You must stand on the limits of the dis- 
covered before you can reach into untraveled 
realms of thought and bring therefrom grand truths 
for other toilers. To do this work you must be 
equipped with scholarship; you must know the 
known before you can discover the unknown. 
Scholarship, then, is necessary that you may pay 
the debt you owe your profession, yourself, your 
generation, and your Alma Mater. 

Gentlemen, I have thus placed a high standard 
before you. I believe it is as true as it is high. 
Who can attain unto it? Imperfection marks all 
earthly endeavor and attainment. But there is 
growth in the effort to grow. There may be power 
in our conscious need of power. We have our 
brief span of life in this nineteenth century or in 
the opening years of the twentieth. It is the noon- 
day of opportunity. Our fathers saw this day from 
afar, but they only touched the hem of oppor- 
tunity's flowing robe. The world never saw a 
more glorious era than ours. Forward, O men ; 
let us do our duty ; angels can do no more. 

Gentlemen, with all our getting may we get 



THE SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD "$J 

" understanding." With all our striving for knowl- 
edge may we "come to the knowledge of the 
truth." The school of Him who "spake as never 
man spake" is the noblest university. When we 
have been graduated from life's school, may we be 
matriculated into the higher learning of heaven's 
limitless knowledge and unspeakable glory ! 



II 

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 1 

MR. PRESIDENT and Christian Friends : I 
thank you for your cordial greeting. It is 
with many and conflicting emotions that I rise in this 
place and on this occasion, in response to the call 
of the chairman. Many and tender memories of 
honored instructors and beloved fellow-students 
who have finished their course and have entered 
upon their rest, crowd upon me to-day. Twenty- 
three years ago I left this place to embrace the 
opportunity for a broader culture than was possible 
here at that time. Coming back to you to-day 
thoughts of gratitude to God for his mercy, mingled 
with the memories of which I have spoken, cluster 
about this spot. I congratulate you all upon this 
beautiful day. With no part of the very kind in- 
troduction just given me by Dr. Rand do I so 
heartily agree as with the reference to the wisdom 
shown in the selection of the day for this memora- 
ble observance. It is surely right for us to regard 
this day as an expression of the kindness of our 
Father in Heaven. We are certainly warranted in 
seeing in the glorious sunshine which now floods 

1 Delivered October 22, 1886 at Woodstock, Ontario, at the 
laying of the cornerstone of the New Hall, the gift of Senator 
and Mrs. McMaster, of the Woodstock College. 
38 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 39 

the world with its splendor, the reflection of his 
uplifted countenance ; and in the balmy air which 
kisses our cheek, we recognize his paternal bene- 
diction. 

It is my profound conviction that this day 
marks an era in the history of our beloved de- 
nomination in Canada ; that the laying of this cor- 
nerstone is an epoch-making event in our educa- 
tional work. Senator and Mrs. McMaster, I am 
quite well assured, will be remembered in the years 
to come ; not so much because of his business suc- 
cess ; not so much because of the political honors 
which have been showered upon him ; not so much 
because of social distinction on the part of both, as 
because of the part which they have taken in the 
education of young men and women in our de- 
nomination in Canada. If there were no higher 
motives for generosity to literary institutions than 
the consideration of the worthy fame which they 
give their promoters, this might be one reason for 
the exercise of benevolence in this respect. 

The honor of founding and aiding the great col- 
leges and other institutions of learning in the Old 
World and the New, will endure after all political and 
social successes have passed away. These schools 
will outlive the glory of kings and queens. Firm 
as is the British throne to-day, it is not so firm as 
are the great institutions of learning which are the 
pride and glory of Britain. Amid political conflicts 
the British throne may totter and even fall, but 
these great colleges will stand, whether under a 



4-0 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

monarchy or in a republic ; their foundation is sure 
and their immortality is certain. The founders of 
such institutions of learning will live in honored 
memory while time lasts. Those who contribute 
to the establishment and to the endowment of in- 
stitutions of learning should have higher motives 
than these. As a rule they have higher motives ; 
as a rule the considerations named are only sec- 
ondary, if they are present at all. But they cer- 
tainly are not unworthy of mention on an occasion 
of this kind. All honor to the noble men who 
have given so largely of their wealth ; all honor to 
the scores and hundreds of men and women who 
have given out of their comparative poverty for the 
founding of this institution. Their names shall 
shine as the stars forever in the galaxy of noble, 
intelligent, and consecrated Canadian Baptists. 

Permit me on this occasion to call your atten- 
tion to the " Characteristics of True Culture," as the 
special topic for remark. 

FIRST CHARACTERISTIC. 

We may say at the outset, that true culture must 
be comprehensive. It is evident that true culture 
implies the development of all the faculties of our 
complex being. A very little consideration will 
make this truth perfectly clear. What is culture ? 
Look at the derivation of the word. It is tilling. 
To till you must plow or delve ; you must rake or 
harrow. You have culture in a field only as you 
have tilling. Parts of the field that have not been 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 4 1 

tilled are not cultured. That cannot then be a 
cultured field in which large portions have been 
neglected. New World farmers are astonished when 
they see the fields of the Old World farmers. With 
the latter every spot is tilled, every mountain side 
is cultured. 

No man can claim that his is a well-tilled farm 
when much of it has never felt the plowshare or 
the spade. So no man can fairly claim the honors 
of culture, portions of whose nature lie fallow. 
What would you say of a man who would claim 
to be cultured simply because his muscles were 
well developed. You say, " Yes ; he has physical 
culture, let him limit his claim to that." But you 
rightly demand more. The intellect also must 
have culture. Now more of the territory has been 
gone over ; now more may be rightly claimed 
by the man. But why stop there ? The man is 
more than muscles and mind. You must go 
higher. All things below man look up to man as 
their center. Shall he have no upward look ? All 
faculties within look to the heart, the soul, the con- 
science. 

The word conscience suggests this upward look. 
It is a solemn word. It is knowing together with 
another. Who is that other? There stands God. 
The literal meaning of one Greek word for man 
is "The upward-looking one." A man who has 
no upward look is unworthy of the name ; he is 
denying his dignity ; he is stripping himself of his 
glory. Language itself witnesses for its author. 



42 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Man is not a god unto himself. A true culture 
includes the entire field ; it sweeps across every 
faculty. It has its earthward, its manward, and 
its Godward relation. If lacking in any of these 
directions it is partial, defective, and unauthoritative 
culture. It is like Ephraim, who is likened to a 
cake not turned — a cake baked only on one side. 

Tried by this true standard many claimants for 
this honor will be found wanting. Sidney Smith 
thought it better not to read a book which he was 
to review — reading might prejudice his judgment. 
So do men of culture in some directions seem to act 
in regard to religion and the Bible. The religious 
side of their nature is neglected, other parts are 
cultivated. On science and art they would not 
make ignorance a claim to authority ; in regard to 
religion they act as if their ignorance especially 
fitted them for bold and authoritative statement. 
Such men would deserve our contempt did not our 
religion teach us to give them our pity. The apos- 
tles could say, "We speak that we do know" ; not 
so with these ill-cultured critics of divine things. 
Locke said, "It needs a sunny eye to see the sun." 
He is right. No man can see the ocean except he 
have oceans in his soul ; no man can truly enjoy 
the mountains unless he has mountains on his brain ; 
so no man knows divine love save as he has felt its 
constraining power. Flesh and blood cannot reveal 
the deep things of God to a man. The Lord's 
secret is with those who fear him. 

To know bread and meat you must eat them. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 43 

A hungry man who should coolly pronounce on the 
life-giving qualities of bread and meat as the result 
of a chemical analysis alone would proclaim himself 
a fool. You would say of him that much starving 
had made him mad. So to be able to judge of re- 
ligion you must have religion ; you must have the 
bread of heaven. This is not on the part of the re- 
ligious teacher asking too much. If you are to 
demonstrate to me a problem in geometry you 
have a right to demand that I shall know enough 
of the science at least to follow you step by step. 
If I do not, how dare I dissent from your conclu- 
sion? Is my ignorance to give me authority? 
Geometrically I am, on this supposition, an utterly 
uncultured man. 

Surely a man ought to be diffident in pro- 
nouncing an opinion on a subject which he has 
never studied. Sir Isaac Newton was right when 
he said to Dr. Halley, a man of science but an un- 
believer in God's word : " I am glad to hear you 
speak about astronomy and mathematics, for you 
have studied and you understand them ; but you 
should not talk of Christianity, for you have never 
studied it." That is good sense. Dr. Halley was 
not a man of culture so far as Christianity was con- 
cerned ; that side of his nature was unbaked, un- 
cultured. In recent discussions on the life and 
work of Emerson, the name of Thoreau has often 
been mentioned. He is a type of one class of men 
of culture, so called. In 1837 he graduated from 
Harvard College. For three years he was a teacher ; 



44 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

he then occupied himself with various kinds of me- 
chanical pursuits and with land surveying. He 
imbibed the spirit of Emerson's transcendentalism. 
In March, 1845, ne built himself a shanty on the 
shore of Walden Pond. There he lived a sort of 
hermit life. One object was to see how simply and 
cheaply a man could live ; and he demonstrated 
that it was possible to do this on seventy dollars a 
year. Noble achievement ! Grand ambition ! True, 
he wrote a little. But what did he really accom- 
plish? How was he better than the miserable 
monastic hermits of an earlier day? Such culture 
is in its last analysis supreme selfishness, and sel- 
fishness is the essence of all sin. 

Emerson, in a measure, fell into the same snare. 
He was refined, solitary, personally pure, and noble. 
But whose sorrows did he share ? Whose burdens 
did he lift? Carlyle's culture was painfully one- 
sided. He was crusted on the one side, he was crude 
on the other. The harsh, the crabbed, the unloving 
elements were unduly developed ; the tender, gentle, 
and winning graces were neglected. He broke the 
heart of Jane Welsh, who devoted her great powers 
and sacrificed her lofty ambition to be his household 
slave. She might have been the wife of Edward 
Irving, and if he had had her for a wife he would 
have had fewer dreams and visions and would have 
accomplished more for God and man. Garlyle held 
this woman almost exclusively to the drudgery of 
menial duties. If he had given her the position 
which her worth demanded and had helped her in 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 45 

her domestic burdens, he would have had less dys- 
pepsia in his body and less savagery in his books. 
If a few more lives of Carlyle are published we shall 
begin to wish that one life had never been lived ; 
the iconoclast of shams, there is danger that he 
himself shall be proved a sham. The men who 
bless and save the world in the largest sense, are 
not men of Carlyle's stamp. His very greatness 
makes his weakness the more conspicuous. 

It is also to be borne in mind that both Emerson 
and Carlyle seem to have come, in their later years, 
more fully into the light of Christ than in their 
middle life. Remarks made by Emerson plainly 
show that his pantheism gave way to theism, and 
that Christ became more and more an example and 
helper. Carlyle fully acknowledged, as he stood 
on the brink of eternity, that the old words learned 
in childhood came back with wondrous power — 
that the chief end of man was to glorify God and 
enjoy him forever. Culture? Yes, but let it be the 
culture of the whole man. Such was the culture of 
Howard, of Wilberforce, and of Lincoln. Those 
were men of broader sympathies, philanthropic im- 
pulses, and practical aims. All acknowledge the 
power of George Eliot as a thinker and writer. 
She was in some respects the most accomplished 
woman of her generation. A woman's pen stabbed 
to the heart the monster slavery in America, and 
George Eliot's pen was a mighty instrument for 
piercing many an evil in England and throughout 
the world. But she had a narrow outlook and 



46 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

almost no uplook. This world bounded her range 
of vision. She was a preacher of despair and an 
apostle of pessimism. She robbed herself of her 
noblest crown as a child of God and an heir of 
glory. 

Better the rounded life, symmetrical culture, and 
practical labors of Florence Nightingale. Born in 
the same year as Queen Victoria, she also is a queen. 
Born in the beautiful city of Florence, she therefor 
received her beautiful name. Taking the name of 
Nightingale, because of family and property con- 
siderations, she has proved herself to be truly a 
nightingale, singing songs of hope and love in the 
loneliness of grief and in the darkness of the mid- 
night hour. She possessed even in her infancy 
that undefined and undefinable something which 
has been called "the nurse's touch." Beginning 
in the humblest way by carrying warm food, gruel, 
and tea to children of sick neighbors ; going with 
flannels and bandages to the hospitals to aid the 
distressed ; going later in life to Germany to per- 
fect herself for such a noble ministry in a famous 
school devoted to instruction in the healing art, she 
went from strength to strength, being faithful in 
that which was least, and ready to enter the door 
of a wider opportunity when, in the providence of 
God, it should be open. 

That opportunity soon came. The soldiers of 
Britain were found in the Crimean War marching in 
deep snow in boots without soles. They laid their 
weary bodies down at night in tents whose floors 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 47 

were wet with melted snow, and whose sides were 
but poorly protected from the driving storm. Never 
did the soldiers of Britain fight under more disadvan- 
tageous circumstances. The letter of Dr. Russell to 
the " London Times," describing these horrible con- 
ditions, aroused all England ; every heart was stirred 
with pity and with righteous indignation, coupled 
with profound sorrow. All eyes were turned in the 
direction of some practical helper. Then up rose 
Florence Nightingale. She went. The world 
knows her history ; the world will never forget her 
deeds of heroism and of noble consecration. 
Thousands of soldiers soon called her blessed, and 
her name soon took the place among the noblest 
women of the noblest nations of the earth. When 
in the American Republic the fiercest civil war 
of the world was raging, the example of Flor- 
ence Nightingale aroused her American sisters 
all over the loyal North, and on scores of battle- 
fields and in scores of hospitals these loyal women 
ministered to the sick and soothed the pillows 
of the dying. The American Nightingales made 
the dark night of many a terrible scene musical 
with the song of hope, of love, and of patriotic 
devotion. 

There is more power in the sweet and blessed life 
of " Sister Dora," with her strong body, her clear 
head, and her consecrated heart, ministering to the 
sick, instructing the well, and caring for the dying, 
than in the lives of all the sentimental hermits, tran- 
scendental philosophers, and snarling critics. It is 



48 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

a touching and beautiful fact that almost at this 
moment a monument is being unveiled to the mem- 
ory of Sister Dora, and Florence Nightingale is 
invited to participate in the ceremonies. The 
beautiful letter whicR she has written in reply to 
the invitation is now being read in the newspapers 
of two continents, and the memoirs of these two 
women will hereafter be united by the tenderest of 
sisterly ties. Give us this stalwart sister Dora ! 
Give us the fragile and fragrant Havergal, whose 
songs, inspired by genius and Christian consecra- 
tion, will be sung for many generations as samples 
of the culture which the world needs and which 
only the spirit of Christ and his cross can give ! 
True culture develops all the faculties of the soul. 
True culture must be comprehensive also, cover- 
ing a very broad field. Not only all the faculties 
of the soul are to be developed, but true scholar- 
ship must include a very wide range of subjects in 
our day. Every man who is made is, in a true 
sense, self-made. The term scholar, unfortunately, 
is not synonymous with the term college graduate. 1 
There are scholars who are not college graduates ; 
there are college graduates who are not scholars. 
Some graduates have not the habits, tastes, and in- 
stincts of scholars. It is not the business of a 
college to furnish brains. A college is a mill, and 
the character of the flour depends upon the qual- 

1 At this point a few of the thoughts expressed in the first paper 
are repeated. They are retained because of their importance in 
their present connection. — [Ed.] 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 49 

ity of the grain which, goes into the hopper. No 
college faculty can get something out of nothing. 
You can polish maple or marble ; you cannot 
polish cheese or chalk. It has been often and con- 
clusively demonstrated that money cannot pur- 
chase capacity. The fool brayed in the college 
mortar, with however good a presidential pestle, is 
a fool still. Doubtless he will profit by the bray- 
ing; doubtless some of his foolishness will have 
departed from him by the time of his graduation. 
If after the advantages of the college course there 
is so great stupidity as we sometimes see, how great 
would that stupidity be had there been no college 
course? The stupidity is in spite of, not because 
of, the training received. On the other hand, 
those who are scholars but not college graduates, 
are such in spite of their disadvantages. Given a 
college training and how much more complete, 
symmetrical, and polished their scholarship would 
be. The colleges simply help men to make them- 
selves. The college training sharpens nature's 
tools and teaches their right use. You may with 
one hand hold on the grindstone a chisel with which 
you are to carve out fame and fortune ; you may 
turn the stone with the other hand, but if you 
could hold the chisel with both hands while the 
college faculty turned the stone, your chances for a 
fine-edged tool would be wonderfully improved. 

This broad scholarship is needed to-day, not 
alone in professional and political, but also in busi- 
ness life. The relations of business life are more 

D 



50 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

far-reaching to-day than ever before in the world's 
history. The world is both larger and smaller than 
ever before — larger in regard to its points of con- 
tact with our daily lives — smaller in regard to the 
facility with which the contact is make. Mr. Joseph 
Cook has said that there are now no hermit nations. 
Inspired by a unifying and sympathetic impulse the 
nations have risen above their former boundaries, 
and have mingled the results of their labor in one 
great ocean of national life and Christian endeavor. 
Steamships and railways make distant continents 
near neighbors ; telegraphs and telephones have 
made the world a whispering gallery. They have 
changed the business and the civilization of the 
century. They represent on a gigantic scale the 
marvels of each man's own nervous system. 

With bowed head and palpitating heart, all Chris- 
tendom, a few years ago, virtually stood by the bed- 
side of General Garfield while he was fighting his 
terrible battle. In the capitals of the world his pulse- 
beats were counted ; princes and peasants listened 
with mingled hope and fear for his heart-throbs. 
Since that day all the world watched General Grant 
fighting the only enemy he could not conquer. 
Such kinship was impossible a generation ago ; 
such unity of knowledge and interest will do much 
to unite the world in the bonds of perpetual broth- 
erhood. Every morning the ends of the world meet 
in the paper at our breakfast table. In this day 
merchants deal with peoples of various names, 
colors, languages, and conditions. Soon the Congo 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 5 I 

Valley will be as familiar to our thought and speech 
as is the valley of the Mississippi to-day. Already 
goods are shipped from our ports to the corners 
of the earth ; already new branches of manufac- 
tures are preparing to enter these new and vast 
fields of commercial enterprise. India is as near 
us to-day as Liverpool was a generation ago. To- 
day the merchant and the manufacturer ought to 
know the history, the products, the needs, the 
habits and the conditions of at least half a dozen 
nations. To-day in the city of New York repre- 
sentatives of almost every nation under heaven may 
be met upon the street, and forty different lan- 
guages and dialects are heard in a morning's walk. 
The same thing is true of London. The successful 
man of the past generation, if he should still follow 
the old methods, would be a helpless dwarf amid 
the tremendous giants of to-day. 

Do you tell me that the business man of to-day 
does not need scholarship both vast and varied? 
Then I ask you, " Where have you lived? In what 
sunless hole have you burrowed, that you cherish 
such an opinion?" Our most kingly merchants, 
not to speak of professional men, find an ever-widen- 
ing sphere for the employment of all their faculties 
in the tremendous rush and roar of the world-em- 
bracing possibilities of our time, in the march of 
trade, and in the general diffusion of knowledge in 
our day. Never was it more evident than at this 
hour that any scholarship, worthy of the name, must 
be comprehensive in the sense in which I am now 



52 CURRENT QUESTJONS FOR THINKING MEN 

using that term. No man may rightly lay claim to 
the honors of culture who does not cover a very 
wide and varied field in the use of his intellectual 
plow and harrow. 

But scholarship must also be comprehensive in 
the sense of making a thorough examination of any 
particular topic. The time was when specialists 
were synonymous with quacks — when in the pro- 
fession of medicine to speak of an oculist or an 
aurist, or of a man devoted to any one branch of 
medical practice, was confessedly or tacitly to speak 
of him as a charlatan, an empiric, a quack. That 
day is now past. Specialists are recognized with 
peculiar regard, and their opinions received with 
marked authority in their various professions. The 
field of inquiry is too large to be thoroughly can- 
vassed by any one man, however vast and varied 
his erudition may be. However much we enlarge 
the boundaries of the known, we by so much, and 
by much more, enlarge the boundaries of the un- 
known. Every new discovery suggests a thousand 
truths not yet fully discovered ; every new acquire- 
ment impresses the student with the meagreness of 
his attainments, the paucity of his knowledge, and 
the blindness of his intellectual eyesight. 

No man can know everything about everything. 
It is often a confession, not of ignorance, but of right 
knowledge and good common sense when a man 
says, " I do not know ; on that subject I am igno- 
rant." The first step is taken in the direction of 
wide attainment when a man is distinctly conscious 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 53 

of his own ignorance. To draw the line then, be- 
tween broad knowledge and special attainment is 
no easy matter. The true rule, perhaps, is that a 
man should know something of everything and 
everything of something. The farmer should be a 
chemist as far as a knowledge of soils and seeds 
and climates is concerned. So ought every me- 
chanic and every professional man to be master of 
the special department of knowledge to which he 
devotes himself Let me urge you to be thorough ; 
to be able to speak with authority upon all the 
factors which enter into the problems with which 
your own life is specially concerned. In these 
three directions then, we earnestly urge that 
scholarship shall be comprehensive ; it must include 
all the faculties of the soul, it must cover a wide 
range of topics, and it must master all the facts of 
some one topic in order that it may claim the credit 
of comprehensiveness. 

SECOND CHARACTERISTIC. 

But let me remark, in the second place, that 
true culture must manifest itself in noble character. 
Culture is not an end in itself; it is the means to 
an end. That end is noble character. What is 
character? As the word implies, it is the man's 
distinctive mark. Reputation is what a man seems 
to be ; character is what a man is. Reputation is 
what men think we are ; character what God knows 
us to be. Reputation is seeming; character is 
being. There are circumstances under which men 



54 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

of good character may have a bad reputation ; there 
are cases also when men of good reputation may 
possess a bad character. Sometimes to be thought 
ill of by some people is the highest compliment ; 
you would be degraded if they thought well of 
you. But seeming and being cannot long contra- 
dict each other ; no man can long play the hypo- 
crite. The being will soon give color to the seem- 
ing. What a man is in the sight of God, he will 
soon appear to be even in the sight of man. What 
is in the man must come out. No man falls sud- 
denly. There is a sudden crash and the world is 
startled, but the man long leaned before he fell. 
The man's sin was long seen by God before the 
world discovered his character. 

To-day character of high order is in constant 
demand. Whatever will tend to its cultivation 
is worthy of our earnest thought and continued 
endeavor. We are startled by the number of 
defalcations whose accounts fill the newspapers. 
Defaulters are found in high places, as well as in 
low ; they are found in the church as well as in the 
world. Defaulters are multiplying so rapidly that 
men sometimes ask, " Can honesty be found any- 
where? " But let us not give way to pessimism of 
this sort. The world is not growing worse. The 
church was never more intelligent, benevolent, and 
consecrated than it is to-day. For every man who 
is a defaulter there are scores and hundreds and 
thousands who stand firm as a rock amid the 
strongest temptations. Men by the thousand can 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 55 

readily be found in banks, in offices, and in other 
positions of trust, who would rather die than betray 
any trust. You in Canada harbor some American 
merchants, aldermen, and others, who find it nec- 
essary for their convenience and comfort to live 
across the border ; but we have millions who do 
not come, except now and then you invite some of 
them ; and they go back whenever they choose 
without the company of a sheriff's officer. While 
you are thinking of one defaulter, do not forget the 
thousands of true and honest men who would 
rather be shot than defraud God or man. 

Perhaps we have made too much of the devil. We 
owe him nothing but disrespect, contempt, and dis- 
obedience. But there is enough in the dishonesty 
practised to suggest earnest inquiry and to lead to 
earnest effort to secure character of a high order. 
Such character is wanted to-day as never before. 
Every man in God's world will, in the course of time, 
get all that he is worth. We have no sympathy with 
men who complain that they are not appreciated. 
There is no corner in the universe sufficiently ob- 
scure to hide a man of power ; God wants such 
men ; the world wants such men. The world seeks 
them ; God sends for them. They find their level ; 
some far above the position of the average man. 
God has a hook, in a different sense from that in 
which he had it in the nose of Sennacherib, in the 
nose of every man. God reaches out his hand 
after such men and says, "Come up higher," and 
they go. Now, culture, education, scholarship 



$6 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

which does not develop character of the highest 
order, is not culture, education, scholarship of the 
highest order. We want the ripest products which 
all these influences can possibly produce. 

We must remember that character of the highest 
order is not formed amid the rush of the street. The 
whole trend of college and church effort to-day is 
apt to be too much in the direction of work. The 
cry at our religious and educational conventions is, 
Work, work, work. The song we constantly hear 
is, "Work, for the night is coming" ; the text we 
frequently quote is, " A workman that needeth not 
to be ashamed " ; the command which we con- 
stantly utter is, "Son, go work in my vineyard." 
We love to represent our Christian life as a battle- 
field and the Christian as a soldier. There is truth 
in this representation ; there is in it a truth we must 
never forget ; a truth, on the contrary, which we 
must often and emphatically urge. Nevertheless 
this is not the whole truth. In the word of God 
we find constant reference to walking, growing, 
fruit-bearing. Amid the hurry and bustle of the 
present day we do not give sufficient time to the 
building of the noblest forms of character. Every 
life must have its time of secret communion with 
God, when it may receive in secret that which it 
shall bestow in public. Christ's life was spent 
partly in the closet and partly in the crowd ; partly 
in communion with God and partly in labor for man. 
He swept into the hemisphere of communion with 
God, receiving the Spirit without measure ; and he 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 57 

then swept into the hemisphere of active work, 
bestowing upon man blessings without measure. 
In proportion as we live over again Christ's life 
in this, as in all respects, we shall attain to the 
highest Christian possibilities, we shall develop the 
most symmetrical character. The physical life re- 
quires relaxation that it may enjoy wholesome 
exercise ; not less does the spiritual life require 
profound meditation and careful and consecrated 
Bible study. Like Martha many are cumbered 
with much serving ; we do not object to the much 
serving, but like Mary we must find time also 
to sit at the Master's feet. Sitting there we re- 
ceive strength to run in the way of Christ's com- 
mandments. Hearing his word, we learn best 
how to speak with wisdom to men. Christian char- 
acter is to be exalted by combining wholesome ac- 
tivity with reposeful contemplation. 

THE THIRD CHARACTERISTIC. 

The third characteristic of true culture which I 
shall name is that it is Christian. The highest form 
of character is not possible except it shall be re- 
lated to Jesus Christ. We are thus led from cul- 
ture to character and from character to Christ. 
True culture must be Christian. It ought to be 
known that in a true sense knowledge, not ignor- 
ance, is the mother of devotion. The infinitely 
great on the one hand and the infinitely small on 
the other invite us to their study and charm us by 
their mystery. Christianity welcomes investigation. 



58 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Her spirit builds our free schools and endows our 
colleges and seminaries. Christian young men 
ought to surpass all others in the extent and char- 
acter of their attainments. They have Christ for 
their teacher, and the noblest men and purest 
women the world has ever known, for their fellow- 
pupils. Culture has ever adorned Christianity with 
its beauty, and Christianity in its turn has crowned 
culture with its unfading glories. Learning has 
often found its noblest employment in casting its 
treasures, like the wise men from the East, at the 
feet of Jesus. Christ must be placed in the very 
center of the intellectual life, if its highest possibil- 
ities are to be realized. All intellectual activity 
must go out from him as light rays from the sun. 
When he is so enthroned truths will adjust them- 
selves to one another in their proper relations. 

The pure white light of intellect is impossible 
except it kindles its torch at the cross of Christ. The 
highest glory of Greek and Latin literature was a re- 
flection from the divine splendor which rested on 
Hebrew altars. Nothing has in it the element of en- 
durance except it be religious. The Greek poems 
and dramas are no exceptions to this law. They 
were religious ; in some important respects they 
voiced the deepest religious feelings and the loftiest 
aspirations of the best men of their time. The oper- 
ettas of the day are only for the day. Enduring 
music is religious. The loftiest human aspirations 
are divine aspirations. The men who most trium- 
phantly walk the dizzy heights of intellectual great- 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE $g 

ness are those who most humbly walk with God. 
The most loyal disciple in Christ's school, other 
things being equal, should be the most successful 
disciple in all other schools. Christ is the truth ; 
in its vast realms he is King. All truth worships 
at his pierced feet. This thought gives dignity to 
intellectual pursuits. All angles and triangles, sines 
and cosines, thus become revelations of the thoughts 
of God. Geometry becomes voiceful with eternal 
truths, and astronomy declares the glory of God in 
the firmament which showeth his handiwork. All 
history is but an unfolding of his divine plan and 
eternal purpose. The undevout student is un- 
scientific. How can he master the great truths of 
science and history if he be disloyal to the King of 
Truth ? To know them aright he must first know 
him aright. As well might a man write a treatise 
on astronomy and leave out the sun as to attempt 
to write a history of this world and leave out Jesus 
Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. 

These truths are illustrated in history. It has 
dawned upon the thinkers of to-day that there is a 
philosophy, a science of history ; that there is his- 
toric continuity in the story of races and events ; 
that they are not unrelated facts ; that behind all 
things is the mind of God ; that controlling all 
things is the hand of God. Current events cannot 
be understood except as we see in them the stately 
steppings of the Lord's Christ. Gladstone knows 
this. In the government or out of it, he is the fore- 
most man in the world to-day ; and he is as humble 



6o CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

a Christian as he is learned as a scholar or great as 
a statesman. The truly great scholars of the world 
to-day are pupils in Christ's school. Not Gibbon, 
not Hume, notMacaulay, not Greene, not McMaster, 
can write history and leave out Christ. The reverent 
student of history hears the echoes of his footbeats 
all down the corridors of the centuries. He sees 
all historic forces before the coming of Christ con- 
verging toward the cross ; he sees all after his com- 
ing diverging fiom it. The cross is the pivotal 
point of the world's history. It stood at the con- 
fluence of three streams of civilization : Hebrew, 
the language of religion ; Greek, the language of 
culture ; Latin, the language of law. To under- 
stand these forces in the world's life, you must sit 
beneath the cross of Calvary. Perhaps Hugh Mil- 
ler did not- go too far when he claimed to have 
found the cross in the hoary rocks. It is certain 
that the true historical student sees the hand of 
Christ on the helm of the universe. All science, 
all history, all true intellectual effort receives from 
Christ its inspiration and lays at his feet its noblest 
achievements. 

The same truth is seen in literature. Many per- 
sons are ambitious to be considered great readers, 
and they too often neglect the Bible. It is im- 
possible to read all the books published by the 
prolific press of the day. It is as undesirable as it 
is impossible. As well might you submit to hav- 
ing every man you meet on the street to-morrow 
morning take you by the button-hole, as have every 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 6 1 

book published arrest your attention. There are, 
however, certain classics that every well-informed 
man should read. Works of history, science, art, 
and some works of fiction there are which he should 
read, but not to the neglect of the word of God. 
In it are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowl- 
edge. 

Many illustrations emphasize these statements. 
When Sir Walter Scott lay dying, he was carried 
into his dining room that he might gaze on the 
beautiful Tweed, which he so much loved. He 
then asked his son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart, to read 
to him. "What book?" asked Mr. Lockhart. 
" What book ? "said Sir Walter ; " there is but one, 
the Bible, read that." He who had read so widely, 
and had contributed so many immortal pages to 
literature, gives this testimony to the value of the 
Bible. Mr. Dickens was in the habit of writing a 
letter to each of his sons as he left the paternal 
roof. In one he urged his son, whatever other 
books be neglected, to read the Bible, as it con- 
tained the purest morality and the best known rules 
of life in the world. When Milton would become 
a "poet, soaring in the high reason of his fancies, 
with his garland and singing robes about him," he 
must go to the Bible for his high theme. The 
music of "Siloa's brook that flowed fast by the 
oracle of God," gives its charm to his lofty verse. 

The debt which music, painting, sculpture, and 
literature owe to the Bible cannot be fully estimated. 
It has been said by a competent authority that the 



62 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Red Cross Knight, in Spenser's " Faerie Queene," 
is but Paul's armed Christian in the sixth chapter 
of the Epistle to the Ephesians ; that Pope's " Mes- 
siah" is but a paraphrase of prophetic and seraphic 
passages in Isaiah ; that the noblest strains in 
Cowper's "Task" draw their inspiration and part 
of their imagery from the same rapt prophet ; that 
the " Thanatopsis " of Bryant is but the expansion 
of a passage in Job ; that Wordsworth's " Ode on 
Immortality" could never have been written but 
for Paul's fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians and 
the eighth chapter of Romans ; that Shakespeare's 
conception of woman, of a Desdemona and of an 
Ophelia, would have been impossible had not his 
mind been permeated by a Bible, a Christian ideal. 
That true culture must be Christian is illustrated 
in art as in literature. When Raphael, " the di- 
vine," would perpetuate his name to unborn genera- 
tions, he must ascend the " holy mount," stand in 
the supernal glory, and gaze on the transfigured 
Christ. As " The Transfiguration " was his greatest, 
so it was his last work. He died at Rome on 
April 6th, 1 5 20, the anniversary of his birthday, in 
early manhood, being but thirty-seven years old, 
with the "Transfiguration" on his heart and brain. 
That picture was carried before him to his grave. 
He was buried in the Pantheon. Over his sleeping 
dust some loving hands long continued to place a 
rose. This rose faded, but the "Rose of Sharon " 
still fills the world with its perfume. When Handel 
was discouraged by attempting to give opera in a 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 63 

foreign language, he accepted an invitation from 
several notables in Ireland to visit Dublin. From 
a friend he received a text from the Bible, and on 
that text he composed his immortal work, known 
at first as the "Sacred Oratorio," now known as 
the " Messiah." Both in Dublin and in London 
this work gave him immediate fame, and since, 
throughout the world, it has crowned him with 
triumphant success and unfading glories. 

With undaunted heart we stand beside the Cross 
to-day. In this sign we shall conquer the world. 
An uplifted Christ is still the mightiest magnet to 
attract the hearts of men ; this cannot be denied. 
That Cross is still the power and the wisdom of 
God. Some men may affirm that the old gospel is 
losing its power; that " modern thought" demands 
a modern gospel. They have denied that the 
gospel is a finality ; they have invented other 
gospels. But what is new in them is not true ; 
and what is true is not new. They have tried 
spiritualism, and it has proved itself to be a vulgar 
cheat and contemptible fraud. They have tried 
materialism, and it has proved itself to be, what 
Carlyle called it, "a gospel of dirt" They have 
tried various shades of liberalism, but negatives are 
poor food for hungry souls. They have tried sci- 
ence. To a true science religion has no objections 
to urge. What God says in his works must agree 
with what he says in his word. Genesis and geol- 
ogy, when each is rightly interpreted, must har- 
monize. A true science will lay its crown at Jesus' 



64 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

feet Men have tried atheism. They would de- 
throne God, they would degrade men ; but God 
refuses to be pushed out of the world which he has 
made. 

One scarcely knows whether most to pity or 
despise these false teachers. They certainly ex- 
cite our pity ; they almost justify our contempt 
They are moles and bats in the gleaming light of 
the nineteenth century. Once Paine boasted, in 
the Broadway Hotel, in New York, that in five 
years there would not be a Bible in America. How 
we smile at his folly ! The day will come when the 
defiant predictions of another blatant and blas- 
phemous infidel will excite our corresponding pity 
and contempt The pulpit losing its power ! The 
Bible becoming obsolete ! The pulpit was never 
so mighty a power as it is at this hour. The Bible 
is mightier than ever before, while the books of in- 
fidel opposers lie dust-covered in unused libraries. 
I tell you that as a Christian man I walk with my 
head among the stars. The highest point of human 
greatness men ever reach is when they bow at the 
feet of Jesus Christ, and take him for their Lord 
and God. Away with the devil's nostrums ! I 
respectfully decline to be orphaned in my Father's 
world. We want the old, old gospel, old as eter- 
nity, and new as the last sunbeam which has kissed 
your cheek. Nothing but the bread of heaven can 
feed the hungry soul. Nothing but the balm of 
Gilead can heal the heart's sorrow. Blessed be 
God, his gospel will never lose its power until Satan 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CULTURE 65 

is crushed beneath our feet, and Christ is wor- 
shiped as Lord of all. 

On the banks of that river which Byron called 
"the wide and winding Rhine" stands the old city 
of Cologne. It is famous for many things, but 
especially for its cathedral. The old foundation 
of this was laid in 814; the foundations of the 
present structure in 1270. This cathedral is one 
of the noblest specimens of Gothic architecture in 
the world. It is five hundred and ten feet long 
and two hundred and thirty feet wide. For hun- 
dreds of years a great iron derrick hung from its 
unfinished towers. The architect died, leaving the 
cathedral but a dream of his brain. The pave- 
ments of this unfinished structure were dyed with 
blood of friend and foe, but the work was not to 
remain incomplete. Emperors laid hold of this 
unfinished structure ; money was poured out like 
water, and that which was once a dream in the 
architect's brain is now a poem in stone. Within 
the past few years the work has been completed, 
and the highest work of man beneath the stars at 
this present time is the lofty towers of the cathedral 
of Cologne. The plan of the architect is realized 
in every detail. He died, but his work lives. The 
dream of his brain is now a sermon, an inspiration, 
a poem. 

All these glorious truths are illustrated in the 
history of this institution. Perish the thought that 
it should live to discrown and dethrone the Lord 
Jesus Christ ! This day marks an era in its history 

E 



66 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

and in the history of Baptist education in the Do- 
minion of Canada. We have laid the corner-stone 
in the name and to the glory of the Triune God. 
An inspiring future awaits us. Every science 
and every art shall bring its crown and lay it here, 
at the pierced feet of Christ. We are rearing a 
nobler structure than one of wood and stone. We 
are building up characters that shall be more en- 
during than bronze or marble. We are building in 
individual lives a temple for the King of Kings. 
The workers will die ; the work will live. In it 
Dr. Fyfe and his companions in toil will live over 
again their consecrated lives. The foundation is 
laid in Christ's name, and amid the shouts of saints 
and the paeans of seraphs the capstone shall be laid ; 
and our song now and in that glorious future shall 
be, " Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy great 
name be the glory." 



Ill 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR 
SPIRIT 1 

CHRISTIANITY is a more pervasive, domi- 
nant, and beneficent force than either its 
friends or its foes ordinarily appreciate. Like 
many other mighty forces it works largely in 
silence. It does not give out a loud report when 
it undermines some hoary error or establishes some 
benignant truth. God's great heavens and his vast 
laboratory in the earth give forth, for the most 
part, no sound in their gigantic movements. God's 
greatest works are performed in silent realms. 
Christianity is no exception to this law. Like its 
Founder it comes not with observation. Heathen 
thinkers and writers of the early centuries of Chris- 
tianity were strangely ignorant of its power, and 
apparently even of its presence. Their silence is 
surprising ; it is almost unaccountable. In the 
meantime Christianity was leavening literature, 
philosophy, art, government, and social life ; it was 
the force hidden in the very heart of society which 
was to some degree to affect the whole Roman 
world. But even in our own day many men are 

1 Delivered in connection with the commencement exercises of 
the Newton Theological Institution, Newton, Mass., May 24, 
1892. 

67 



68 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

strangely thoughtless as to the place and power of 
Christianity among the roborant forces of modern 
life. Its predominance and beneficence, like the 
majesty and glory of the sun, are with many Chris- 
tians even matters of course. Some who are the 
foes of Christianity do not, because they will not, 
recognize its influence at its full value. It was 
prophesied of its divine Founder that " he should 
not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard 
in the street " ; and also that " he shall bring forth 
judgment unto truth ; he shall not fail nor be dis- 
couraged, till he have set judgment in the earth; 
and the isles shall wait for his law." 

Our Lord's life was a literal fulfillment of this 
ancient prophecy. The history of his church since 
his ascension is equally a fulfillment of the proph- 
ecy so far as it relates to the progress of Christian 
truth. Nothing is more certain than that Christ is 
to reign until all his enemies are put under his feet, 
and that the gates of hades shall not prevail against 
his church. It is readily admitted that greater 
prominence is given in our day to certain evils in 
society than was formerly the case. But this is not 
because the evils are greater than ever before ; it is 
rather because the desire to remove them is greater 
than ever before. The shadows are deeper because 
the light is brighter. No quarter of a century in 
the world's history is so marked with great moral 
conflicts and conquests as is the third quarter of 
this century. We do not hesitate to say that it has 
no parallel in any period, before or since the Chris- 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 69 

tian era. We have seen during this generation 
many millions of serfs emancipated in Russia ; we 
have seen the temporal power of the pope de- 
stroyed and Victor Emanuel in triumph entering 
Rome as king of United Italy ; we have seen the 
greatest civil war of the world waged on our own 
soil, and ending in the triumph of liberty and the 
establishment of the republic on enduring founda- 
tions. What has been the influence of Christianity 
in bringing about these and other beneficent re- 
sults ? What is the relation of Christianity to the 
spirit of the times in which we live ? This is a 
proper question. To it a fair answer can be given. 

CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE. 

Let us, in the first place, look at the relation be- 
tween Christianity and the scientific spirit of the 
time. 

Many timid Christians think there is a necessary 
opposition between Christianity and science. Many 
narrow-minded scientists take the same ground, 
with an air of triumph which is as ill founded in 
fact as it is unjustifiable in spirit. Between estab- 
lished science and Christianity there is not, there 
cannot be, contradiction. God is one ; truth is 
one. God cannot contradict himself; what he has 
written in his word, if rightly understood, must 
harmonize with what he has written in his world, if 
properly interpreted. Christianity welcomes all 
forms of right inquiry ; her spirit builds our acad- 
emies, our colleges, and our schools of professional 



JO CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

learning. We frankly admit that the church at 
times has acted ignorantly, bigotedly, and wickedly 
toward science and scientists. Unfortunately, 
science and scientists have acted with equal igno- 
rance, bigotry, and wickedness toward the church. 

The church for the most part has now been con- 
verted, and science has also to some degree ex- 
perienced a change of heart ; but it ought to be 
remembered that if the church in the Middle Ages 
was hostile to science, science at that time was so 
unscientific as to be worthy of but little respect. 
Perhaps the case of Galileo and his ecclesiastical 
opponents has already done sufficient service in il- 
lustrating the ignorance and bigotry of the church ; 
but there are some sides to the subject which are 
not often presented. The church of that day was 
no fair representative of the church of later days. 
Religion and science, both and equally, were in sad 
need of a reformation. To make the church of to- 
day responsible for the church of that day would be 
as unfair, as unscientific, as to make the science of 
to-day responsible for all the vagaries of the so- 
called science of that day. It is humiliating that 
not only did the Roman Catholic Church of the 
time oppose Galileo, but even Luther and Melanc- 
thon wrote against the Copernican system. They 
regarded it as opposed to the authority of the 
Bible. 

Galileo's teachings triumphed when clear evi- 
dence was adduced for their support. But it is 
to be remembered and constantly emphasized 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT J \ 

that those who first excited persecution against 
Galileo were not ecclesiastics but scientists. This 
was natural. His teachings corrected their igno- 
rance ; they must either confess it or attack him. 
It was natural that they should do the latter, and 
they did it with a will. These were the men — men 
of science — who obliged him to fly from Pisa and 
to seek the protection of Salviati. It was, of 
course, guilty presumption in him to contradict, 
" by experiments made from the top of the Lean- 
ing Tower, the theorem of Aristotle which declared 
that 'the velocity of the motion of falling bodies is 
in proportion to their weight' " Out of this op- 
position and flight came the professorship in the 
University of Padua. Some of his subsequent 
troubles came when he left the sphere of science 
and entered the domain of Scripture interpretation. 
He declared "that in Scripture there were prop- 
ositions which were false in the literal sense of the 
words ... and that in all natural questions philo- 
sophical argument should have more weight than 
mere scriptural declaration." To this bold utter- 
ance the reply of Cardinal Baronius was as consider- 
ate as it was conclusive : " The Scriptures were 
given to teach men how to rise to heaven, not how 
the heavens were made." But the court of Rome 
and the inquisitors of the Sacred Congregation of 
the Index, before whom he was summoned, de- 
clared that the Copernican theory of the revolu- 
tion of the earth was not only false in itself but was 
contrary to Scripture. These titled dignitaries, the 



72 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

infallible pope and the erudite Congregation, antici- 
pated the conclusions to which John Jasper has 
come in our day by his own method of investiga- 
tion. Augustine affirmed that the idea of an An- 
tipodes was unscriptural, for how could those who 
lived there see the Lord when he should return to 
the earth ? Once many churchmen believed that 
the earth stood still, and the sun revolved around 
it ; and they thought a denial of that belief tended 
to disprove the Bible and to destroy Christianity. 
Luther condemned the Copernican system ; he 
thought that the " upstart astrologer " was a fool 
and was teaching contrary to Scripture. Calvin 
also believed that faith in Copernicus was infidelity 
to Scripture. The Roman, the Lutheran, and the 
Anglican churches all practically were the John 
Jaspers of an earlier day. 

The fact is that every science which has struggled 
into recognition has had to wage a fierce war with 
ignorant men of science as truly as with ignorant 
men of theology. It is also true that almost as 
soon as men of science have agreed among them- 
selves as to the recognition and place of the new 
science, theologians have been ready to give it its 
rightful recognition and place. It is not necessarily 
to the discredit of science and theology that they 
are slow to give honor to every new claimant for a 
niche in the temple of knowledge. It is an im- 
pertinence for men of science to expect men of 
theology to give credit to the undigested think- 
ing and the unverified theories of scientific men. 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 73 

Christianity wants truth. She welcomes it from 
whatever quarter it comes and by whomsoever 
it is brought. She is so sure of her position that 
she rejoices in it more than in all riches. She is 
willing to buy it at any price ; she will sell it at 
no price. 

BIOLOGY AND CHRISTOLOGY. 

Newton's discoveries also had to fight their way 
to recognition against opposition on the part of 
some theologians and scientists. Some theologians 
considered that he was invading the domain of 
Deity, was usurping God's place and limiting his 
power, if not driving him out of the world. A 
friend, who was himself an expert in science and 
whose theological orthodoxy was not suspected, 
wrote an able treatise defending Newton and com- 
mending his discoveries. To-day no friend of 
Christianity fears the discoveries of astronomical 
science in all their broad and sublime ranges. The 
Christianity which feared these discoveries was re- 
ligiously as unchristian as the early astrology was 
astronomically unscientific. We now smile at the 
follies of both. Men like Chalmers and Mitchel 
have shown the harmony between God's truths in 
the heavens and on the page of inspiration. We 
now see that the heavens are the tapestry into 
which God has woven some of his most wondrous 
thoughts. But it is little more than a generation 
since Christians trembled for the ark of God, and 
unbelievers rejoiced that it was fully and finally in 



74 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

the hands of the Philistines, because both alike 
thought that astronomy, and related sciences, were 
to destroy the Bible and to dethrone God. 

Geology has passed through a similar experience. 
At present biology is among the most speculative 
of sciences ; it is still in its nebulous state. Men 
are still searching for the origin of life. Evermore 
it has eluded their search. Perhaps it will be dis- 
covered ; if it be so, God will be its author. It 
seems to be settled, so far as anything in science 
can be settled, that all attempts to get life out of 
death have failed. Drummond says that " spon- 
taneous generation has had to be given up." Hux- 
ley affirms that the doctrine that life can come only 
from life is "victorious along the whole line of the 
present day." And, contrary to his own wish, 
Tyndall says : " I affirm that no shred of trustworthy 
experimental testimony exists to prove that life in 
our day has ever appeared independently of ante- 
cedent life." Beyond this we have not gone. 
Should we go further, we have no fears of the 
final result. 

Analogous statements may be made regarding 
the discussion of evolution. Herbert Spencer de- 
fines evolution as " consisting in a progress from 
the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from gen- 
eral to special, from the simple to the complex." 
Some hints of this idea are found in the earliest 
times. The chaotic or mundane egg was an old 
Egyptian cosmological myth. Other nations also 
held to the idea of a development in creation ; 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 75 

some philosophers believed that "an intelligent 
power, or nous, infinite and self-existent," presided 
over the atoms, giving them orderly arrangement ; 
others, as represented in the poem of Lucretius, "De 
Rerum Natura" supposed that chance wrought 
from numberless atoms the existing order of things. 
Coming down at one step to our own day, Wallace 
and Darwin, in 1858, "separately proposed the 
hypothesis of the origin of species by spontaneous 
variation, and survival of the fittest through natural 
selection and the struggle for existence." Darwin's 
treatise on the "Origin of Species" appeared in 
1859. Then came many supporters and opposers. 
Doubtless the great majority of the scientists of our 
day are on the side of some form of evolution. 

The idea has been applied by different writers to 
sociology, to history, to mind, and to theology. Al- 
most no one now doubts "that creation has had a 
history " ; that it is the result of a series of acts run- 
ning through millions of years. At the same time 
it is certain " that as it has been pursued in time, 
so also it has been pursued by method." "There 
is an observed order of facts in the history of crea- 
tion, both in the organic and in the inorganic 
world." As Hartshorne has shown, Prof. Asa 
Gray, Doctor McCosh, Baden Powell, the Duke of 
Argyll, and others, all teach the view of orderly 
creation by law, under the immediate action of 
divine power working by natural causes or forces. 
This power, as he says, has been rightly described 
as a theory, not of supernatural or miraculous inter- 



y6 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

ference, but rather of creative evolution. Mivart 
joins the Duke of Argyll in showing that there is 
no antagonism between creation and evolution. 
The question, as they suggest, is simply whether 
creative power was exerted only at the beginning 
of the process, or all along the line of development. 
There are unbridged gaps in the theory of evolu- 
tion ; but we are willing to admit that the facts 
establish evolution, at least, as a " working hypoth- 
esis." 

But does evolution eliminate the evidences for 
the existence of the Creator and the proofs of 
design in his creation ? Scientists, such as Carpen- 
ter, Dana, Agassiz, Henry, Asa Gray, and others 
of the highest class, deny the insufficiency of the 
proofs of design in nature. They positively refuse 
"to admit the elimination of special creative action, 
or direct modification of nature, from all periods 
since the first origination of the universe." As 
Leifchild, quoted by Hartshorne, says, " The asser- 
tion that 'no will has evolved will,' is as absurd as 
'ex nihilo aliquid.' " Evolution implies an evolver; 
nothing can be evolved which has not been in- 
volved. We do not take from God's power, 
wisdom, and glory because we place his primal 
creative act far back in the line of development ; 
we add to his glory by so doing There is a de- 
velopment in the divine plan in the Old and New 
Testaments ; in the dispensations of patriarchs, 
prophets, and kings, until he came, who is Prophet 
of prophets and King of kings. "The law made 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 77 

nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better 
hope did" (Heb. 7 : 19). There is a Christian 
evolution ; God is the evolver, and truth in its 
highest forms is the result. With Professor Gray, 
in his address before the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, in 1872, as quoted by 
Hartshorne, we may well say : 

Let us hope that the religious faith which survived, with- 
out a shock, the notion of the fixity of the earth itself, may 
equally outlast the notion of the absolute fixity of the 
species which inhabit it ; that in the future, even more 
than in the past, faith in an order, which is the basis of 
science, will not (as it cannot reasonably) be dissevered 
from faith in an Ordainer, which is the basis of religion. 

Placing God farther back in the line of develop- 
ment certainly does not exclude him. If he has 
given the germ the power of development, his 
wisdom, skill, and forethought are as conspicuous 
as if the divine power were immediately exerted. 
A law of development has no power. Law is only 
the name which we give to a force observed to act 
in a special way. Back of law is the Lawgiver; 
back of the observed order of the development is 
the Ordainer. There stands God. 

CHRISTIANITY AND HEATHENISM. 

Another cause of premature alarm on the part of 
many Christians, and of premature rejoicing on the 
part of some enemies of Christianity, is found in 
the spirit of historic inquiry which marks our time. 
This inquiry covers a wide range. We may look 



?8 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

at it, first, in its relations to comparative religions. 
The opening of great areas of heathendom to the 
introduction of Christianity is at the same time the 
opening of Christendom to the possible introduction 
of some elements of heathenism. This Christianity 
must expect; this Christianity should welcome. 
Here, as in other realms, the fittest must survive. 
The true ground of the worship of God is not his 
omnipotence, but his goodness. Mere almightiness 
might bend the knee, but it could not secure the 
reverent love of the heart. We worship God be- 
cause he is the infinitely best being in the universe. 
If there is a better being than God, that being 
must be our God. If Christianity cannot endure, 
when subjected to all forms of practical testing, the 
comparison with other religions, then Christianity 
must go, ought to go, and certainly will go. The 
world ought to have the best ; it will have the best. 
Does any Christian fear this test ? All Christians 
must meet it. There are certain philosophers in 
our country who are practically heathen. Some 
are Buddhists, some Baalists, some Confucianists, 
some Parsees or Hindus, and some, practically, are 
Mohammedans. To some there is a fascination in 
conceiving of heathen religions as developing by 
some mysterious evolution into Christianity. By a 
similar process Christianity, according to this view, 
may some day develop into some other form of 
faith, and that in turn may give way to another 
and another until the perfect flower of faith and 
hope opens in consummate blossom. 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 79 

All fair-minded men admit that in the sacred 
books of these non-Christian religions there is 
something of beauty, worth, and truth. Amid 
bushels of chaff some kernels of wheat are found ; 
amid much of rubbish there are diamond truths. 
It ought not to startle us that among heathen 
nations contemporary with the early years of 
biblical teaching, truths similar to those taught 
in the Bible are found. Much of this truth, 
doubtless, found its way among the heathen na- 
tions from the people of God ; much of the light 
of heathenism came from torches kindled on He- 
brew altars. All of it certainly came by some 
means from God. He alone is the Sun of the 
moral universe. "God is light, and in him is no 
darkness at all." We have the Apostle Peter as 
our authority in the noble utterance that "in every 
nation he that feareth him (God), and worketh 
righteousness, is accepted with him." The writings 
of Mr. Edwin Arnold have done much, in opening 
up the wealth of that gorgeous East, to commend 
the religions of Buddha and Mohammed ; other 
influences have commended the teachings of Con- 
fucius and the rituals of the Parsees. A poetic 
glamour has been thrown over these ancient faiths, 
adding splendor to what in them is beautiful and 
concealing what is hideous. Many men who are 
strangely incredulous about everything Christian 
are hopelessly credulous about everything non- 
Christian. We have seen these faiths making con- 
verts of missionaries sent into their lands, and even 



80 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

coming to our land to push their conquests among 
some devotees of a dreamy, mystical culture. The 
discussions now rife in England, and to some degree 
in America, regarding Dr. Blyden's admitted ten- 
dencies toward Islam, and Canon Taylor's con- 
cession regarding its influence in Africa, point in 
the same direction. Those who knew Dr. Blyden's 
history and character are not much surprised at his 
present attitude, and it is certain that Canon Tay- 
lor's opinions are largely influenced by one-sided 
authorities. Christians, however, have reason to hide 
their heads in shame when fiends in human form 
in Christian countries are furnishing these ignorant 
Africans with liquor which is making their degra- 
dation deeper and their future darker than before. 
Just at the point where the argument from com- 
parative religions was pressed against Christianity, 
two noted witnesses arose to give their testimony 
in favor of Christianity. They are Sir Monier Wil- 
liams, professor of Sanscrit in the University of 
Oxford, and Professor Max Muller. Both of these 
men have spent years in the study of these ancient 
religions ; few men are so familiar with the teach- 
ings which some desire to put in competition with 
Christianity. Their tastes and tendencies might 
make them incline toward these non-Christian re- 
ligions. Indeed, Professor Muller showed a little 
time ago a decided bias in their favor. This writer 
distinctly remembers how unfavorably his own mind 
was once affected toward Christianity by Professor 
Muller' s elaborate work on "The Origin and Growth 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 8 1 

of Religions." Sir Monier Williams is free to con- 
fess that when he began investigating Hinduism 
and Buddhism, he also was prejudiced in their 
favor. As a result of his earlier and incomplete 
studies, he began to be a believer in the evolution 
and growth of religious thought; he considered 
these faiths to be steps in the development of re- 
ligious aspirations struggling toward Christianity. 
Now he affirms his mistake. He denounces the 
" flabby, jellyfish toleration" which refuses to see 
the difference between what is Christian and what 
is non-Christian. He ends his address at the late 
anniversary of the Church Missionary Society, in 
London, with these remarkable and eloquent words : 

Go forth then, ye missionaries, in your Master' s name ; 
go forth into all the world, and after studying all its false 
religions and philosophies, go forth and fearlessly proclaim 
to suffering humanity the plain, the unchangeable, the eter- 
nal facts of the gospel — nay, I might almost say, the stub- 
born, the unyielding, the inexorable facts of the gospel. 
Dare to be downright with all the uncompromising courage 
of your own Bible, while with it your watchwords are love, 
joy, peace, reconciliation. Be fair, be charitable, be Christ- 
like ; but let there be no mistake. Let it be made abso- 
lutely clear that Christianity cannot, must not, be watered 
down to suit the palate of either Hindu, Parsee, Confucian- 
ist, Buddhist, or Mohammedan ; and whosoever wishes to 
pass from the false religion to the true can never hope to do 
so by the rickety planks of compromise, or by the help of 
faltering hands held out by half-hearted Christians. He 
must leap the gulf in faith, and the living Christ will spread 
his everlasting arms beneath and land him safe on the 
eternal Rock. 



82 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

In Max Muller's address given before the British 
and Foreign Bible Society, equally strong language 
in favor of Christianity is used. After having named 
the Veda of the Brahmins, the Puranas of Siva 
and Vishnu, the Koran of the Mohammedans, the 
Zend-Avesta of the Parsees, and the Tripitaka of 
the Buddhists, he goes on to say : 

They all say that salvation must be purchased, must be 
bought with a price, and that the sole price, the sole pur- 
chase-money, must be our own works and deservings. Our 
own holy Bible, our sacred book of the East, is from begin- 
ning to end a protest against this doctrine. Good works 
are, indeed, enjoined upon us in that sacred book of the 
East, but they are only the outcome of a grateful heart ; 
they are only a thank offering, the fruits of our faith. They 
are never the ransom-money of the true disciples of Christ. 
Let us not shut our eyes to what is excellent and true and 
of good report in those sacred books, but let us teach Hin- 
dus, Buddhists, Mohammedans, that there is only one sacred 
book of the East that can be their mainstay in that awful 
hour when they shall pass alone into the unseen world. It 
is the sacred book which contains that faithful saying, 
worthy to be received of all men, women, and children, and 
not merely of us Christians, * ' that Jesus Christ came into 
the world to save sinners." 

These words are timely ; they thrill and rejoice 
our hearts. It is clear that the most advanced 
students in these wide fields bring back testimony 
to the exclusive claims of Christianity to be the 
faith of the race. The men who go deep into 
Christianity and its relations with other religions do 
not fail to give their testimony in its favor. It is 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 8$ 

the men who have picked up a " little learning" at 
second hand that are found to oppose the claims 
of Christianity when compared with other religions. 
Shallow scholars are ever noisy critics. Quite fre- 
quently those who know least assert the most. 

There is not the slightest doubt but that in the 
end good will come out of the discussion of the 
relative merits of Christianity and Islam in Africa 
to-day. The errors in Christianity, so far as it is 
held responsible for the liquor traffic and kindred 
evils, will be corrected, and its superiority will be 
discovered and declared. The Cross and not the 
crescent is destined to rule the world. 

All the historical and topographical inquiries 
now going on in Bible lands will, we fully believe, 
result in giving additional testimony to the truth of 
God's word and the value of Christianity. We 
welcome such investigations. From hoary rocks, 
from Egyptian sands, and from ivy-covered ruins 
God is raising up witnesses in support of our Chris- 
tian faith. It is equally certain that the fierce fires 
of historical criticism through which the Bible is 
now passing will not in the end shake the faith of 
true disciples. It is barely possible that Shakes- 
peare will live when Ignatius Donnelly is dead. 
Homer survives, although the names of the critics 
who denied that he ever lived are fast passing out 
of memory. Some of our interpretations of the 
Bible may have to be modified, some theories 
abandoned ; but God's eternal truth shall abide : 
"The word of our God shall stand forever." 



84 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 
CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIOLOGY. 

When we come to the relation between Christi- 
anity and the social problems of the time, we find 
cause for greater activity in disseminating the princi- 
ples of Christianity, but no cause for distrust in its 
divine claims, noble achievements, or practical possi- 
bilities. When socialism assumes the form of an- 
archy, there can be no relation between it and 
Christianity but one of "irrepressible conflict." 
Christianity favors liberty ; but liberty is not license. 
Liberty is obedience to just law ; the highest liberty 
is submission to God and conformity to his will as 
revealed in his word. Anarchy is un-American, 
unmanly, and ungodly. It is a plant of foreign 
production, a Satanic exotic which can never be- 
come fully rooted in American soil. When social- 
ism becomes anarchy, it is fit only for destruction. 
When men come to America with a red flag in one 
hand and a dynamite bomb in the other, they must 
be quarantined for their natural lives. An exami- 
nation of the lives of the anarchists recently hanged 
shows that they never had any Christian training. 
Had they been educated in its doctrines, they would 
never have made, certainly would never have hurled, 
the fatal bomb. They learned to think of Christi- 
anity as their enemy ; they, in turn, became its ene- 
mies. 

These facts are worthy of careful considera- 
tion by all Christians and all other citizens. We 
cannot afford to neglect the Christian training of 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 85 

any of our people ; we must do our part toward 
training all the nations of the earth, especially those 
whose representatives are likely to come to us. 
Atheism is anarchistic. Sow infidelity and you 
reap anarchism, impurity, death. Every atheist is 
at heart an anarchist. Anarchism is the flower and 
fruit of atheism. No consistent infidel is, or can be, 
a good citizen. True Christianity alone is the har- 
monizer of all the conflicting interests of society. 
It is the true anti-poverty and the true temperance 
society. It alone can elevate the "masses"; it 
alone can reclaim the fallen. 

Dr. Alexander McLeod, in his " Christus Con- 
solatory says that "when Oersted first exhibited 
to Frederika Bremer the beautiful and now famil- 
iar experiment of sand-grains upon a glass plate 
arranging themselves, under the influence of a 
musical note, in symmetrical and harmonious 
figures, this reflection passed through the mind 
of the lady: 'A human hand made the stroke 
that produced the note. But when the stroke 
is made by the hand of the Almighty, will not 
the note then produced bring into exquisitely 
harmonious form those sand-grains which are hu- 
man beings, communities, nations ? It will arrange 
the world in oeauty, and there shall be no discord 
and no lamentation any more.' " This woman is 
right. All that is true in communism is the off- 
spring of Christ's religion ; all that is evil in com- 
munism is opposed by his gospel. His religion is 
the cure for all the evils existing between employer 



86 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

and employed. Put Christ fully into the hearts of 
both and injustice, oppression, and strikes will be 
impossible. 

Count Tolstoi is feeling after Christ. There 
is a Christian communism. It furnishes the only 
true, noble fellowship. Religion now, as in all 
the past, lifts nations and races out of barbarism 
into civilization, out of sin into holiness, from earth 
to heaven. So-called reformers and humanitarians 
who are infidel to Christ and his gospel are the 
enemies of the poor, the enemies of the republic, 
the enemies of the race. Those who would lift 
their hand against the Bible, against the Sabbath, 
against Christ, are the enemies of the best interests 
of all classes for time as well as for eternity. 

Religion would vastly reduce the number of the 
poor. It is the friend of industry and all kindred 
virtues ; it is the foe of intemperance and all kindred 
vices. The poor do not so much need bread as 
the character and the opportunity to earn bread. 
Religion in the heart to a large degree will give 
both. Much is said about carrying the loaf with the 
tract. The idea has in it truth, but it has been over 
worked. It is instructive to remember that only 
twice did Christ use divine power to give bread to 
the multitude, and in both cases the circumstances 
were peculiar. The poor need the religion of 
Christ more than earthly bread. There were as 
many evils, as Dr. McLeod suggests, in Christ's 
day as now. There were then the lapsed classes, 
the dwellers in lanes, the victims of sin and misery 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE SECULAR SPIRIT 87 

of every kind. What was Christ's cure ? Evangel- 
ize them. Did he blunder? Was he lacking in 
gentleness and love ? He was the true reformer, 
the divine humanitarian, the spiritual regenerator 
of the individual and the race. There was a pro- 
found philosophy in his method. His spirit teaches 
the poor and the rich alike to recognize the poor 
man's manhood. This is a recognition of tremen- 
dous power. It gives hope, light, life to the poor. 
It gives those who are up tenderness for those who 
are down ; and those who are down trustfulness 
toward those who are up. Christ's incarnation has 
lifted the world into the sunshine of hope and the 
promise of heaven. It has leveled society by lift- 
ing the downtrodden — leveled it up. Guizot says 
that 

Christianity has carried repentance even into the souls of 
nations. Pagan antiquity knew nothing of these awaken- 
ings of the public conscience. Tacitus could only deplore 
the decay of the ancient rites of Rome, and Marcus Aure- 
lius could only wrap himself sorrowfully up in the stoical 
isolation of the sage ; there is nothing to show that these 
superior minds so much as suspected the great crimes of 
their social state, even in its best days, or aspired to reform 
them. 

The world's hope in every relation in life is this 
old gospel. It must have its place in every heart ; 
it must throw its radiance over every home ; it 
must be in every workshop and counting-house. 

The spirit of the world divides society horizon- 
tally, each class selecting its corresponding layer. 



88 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The spirit of Christianity divides society vertically, 
cutting through all the layers. True religion says, 
whether a man be black or white, red or yellow, 
rich or poor, "A man's a man for a' that." Away 
with the sentimental but Christless philanthropist ! 
Away with the blatant and blasphemous infidel ! 
The true friend of the rich, the poor, the fallen, of 
all classes, is Jesus Christ, the perfect, the Divine 
Man. 



IV 

REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST 1 

THE question, " Why am I a Baptist ? " I should 
answer by saying that it is because I believe 
that Baptist doctrines are the doctrines of the New 
Testament, as interpreted alike by the highest 
scholarship and by the understanding of unlearned 
but devout readers ; and, furthermore, because 
these doctrines are in many respects in harmony 
with the views adopted by the best thought of to- 
day, whether in the churches or without If one 
were asked to state the fundamental idea of the 
Baptists, he might give it as this : Personal faith in 
the Lord Jesus alone saves the soul ; or, stating 
the thought negatively in its relation to baptism, 
baptism will not make a man a Christian. He 
might also enlarge the thought by saying : Obedi- 
ence to the will of Christ as expressed in the in- 
spired Scriptures, including personal faith in Christ 
as the ground of salvation, baptism into the name 
of the Trinity as the profession of that faith, and 
loyalty to Christ in all other things which he has 
commanded. A Christian should, of course, be 

1 Delivered in the Lexington Avenue Baptist Church, New 
York City, April 16, 1893, in an interdenominational series of 
Sunday evening addresses, and published in the "Treasury," 
April, 1897. 

89 



90 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

baptized, as a soldier should put on a uniform ; 
but as it is not putting on the uniform which makes 
a man a soldier, so it is not baptism that makes a 
man a Christian. The man puts on the uniform 
because he is already a soldier ; and so a man 
should be baptized when he has become a Chris- 
tian. A true church, therefore, consists of truly 
regenerated persons, who have been baptized on 
the profession of their faith. Thus, Baptists refuse 
to give baptism to unconscious infants. They bap- 
tize only those whom they believe to have already 
become Christians, only those who show evidence 
of having met with an internal spiritual change. 

Till a recent date the idea that baptism will not 
make one a Christian was distinctively a Baptist 
doctrine ; in the Middle Ages all but Baptists held 
the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. If one 
had been baptized, it was assumed by most church- 
men that he had been made a Christian, and, with- 
out any demand for evidence that he was changed 
in character, he was admitted to all the rights of 
the church. This is true, for the most part, among 
the Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans 
of to-day, and to some degree even among those 
who claim to be more evangelical. All who were 
baptized in infancy are considered to be Christians, 
though they show no evidence whatever of an in- 
ternal spiritual change. The rapid growth of Bap- 
tist churches in modern times results from a more 
general discarding of the doctrine that baptism will 
make a man a Christian. Evangelical revivals, 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST 9 1 

like those of the days of Edwards and Whitefield, or 
like those which follow Mr. Moody's preaching, add 
greatly to Baptists' numbers. When Mr. Moody 
says that baptism will not make a Christian, that 
no man is a Christian till he has truly repented and 
exercised personal faith in Jesus Christ, people ask, 
" Why then should infants be baptized? " 

They adopt the Baptist principle, that as no man 
puts on the military uniform till he has already en- 
listed as a soldier, so no one should be baptized till 
he has already repented and believed and become 
a Christian. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT PRINCIPLE. 

Now, the Baptist principle is the New Testa- 
ment principle. When certain Pharisees asked 
John the Baptist to baptize them, he told them 
they must bring forth fruits meet for repentance ; 
that baptizing them would not make them holy 
men ; that they must first give evidence of repent- 
ance, and then they could be baptized. First, be- 
lief, and then baptism, then the Lord's Supper ; 
this is the New Testament order, and this is the 
order of the Baptist churches still. This Baptist 
idea, that baptism will not make a man a Christian, 
that it is unreasonable to baptize him till he has 
already met with a change of heart, commands the 
approval of all sensible men outside of the church, 
and it is being rapidly adopted by all the more 
evangelical religious bodies. These churches must 
make more of infant baptism or less. 



92 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

There is absolutely no place for infant baptism 
in an evangelical system of theology. Those who 
believe in baptismal regeneration are logical, though 
unscriptural ; those who do not so believe and who 
practise infant baptism are both illogical and un- 
scriptural: Many evangelical churches are begin- 
ning to realize their inconsistency. Not nearly so 
many infants are baptized among the Presbyterians, 
Congregationalists, and Methodists as among the 
Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans. 
Why is this ? It is because, while the last-named 
churches still adhere to the doctrine of baptismal 
regeneration, the first, for the most part, have aban- 
doned it, and they are coming more and more to 
see that if baptism will not make a child a Chris- 
tian, there is no reason for baptizing the child. 

AUTHORITIES AGAINST INFANT BAPTISM. 

I unhesitatingly assert that there is not in the 
New Testament a single command for, or example 
of, infant baptism. If there were, it could easily be 
found, but no one yet has made this discovery. 
How can men who adopt the famous dictum of 
Chillingworth, "the Bible, and the Bible only, the 
religion of Protestants," practise infant baptism? 
In so doing they at once depart from their funda- 
mental principle ; they cannot successfully antago- 
nize the " churchianity " and traditionalism of the 
Church of Rome. Secular common sense and the 
evangelical religious thought of to-day are in this 
respect in harmony with the New Testament. The 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST 93 

scholarship of the world is in agreement with this 
view. Many more authorities might be cited, but 
the following are sufficient : 

Luther says : "It cannot be proved by the sacred 
Scriptures that infant baptism was instituted by 
Christ, or begun by the first Christians after the 
Apostles." l 

Neander says : " Baptism was administered at 
first only to adults, as men were accustomed to 
conceive of baptism and faith as strictly connected. 
We have all reason for not deriving infant baptism 
from apostolic institution." 2 

Prof. Lange says: "All attempts to make out 
infant baptism from the New Testament fail. It is 
totally opposed to the spirit of the apostolic age, 
and to the fundamental principles of the New Tes- 
tament." 3 

Dr. Hanna says : " Scripture knows nothing of 
the baptism of infants." 4 

Tertullian is the first who mentions the custom, 
and he opposes it. This was at the close of the 
second century, or about A. d. 200. His opposi- 
tion to it proves two things : First, that it was in 
occasional use, at least Second, that it was of 
recent origin, since had it been long used some 
earlier record of it could be found. 5 

1 " Vanity of Inf. Bap.," Part. II., p. 8. 

2 "Ch. Hist.," Vol. I., p. 311; "Plant, and Train.," Vol. 
I., p. 222. 

3 "Inf. Bapt.," p. 101. 

* "North Brit. Review," August, 1852. 
5 Neander, "Ch. Hist.," Vol. I., p. 311. 



94 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

" All students of ecclesiastical history know that 
at an early period corruptions perverted Christian 
faith and practice. Among these, one of the ear- 
liest was that of an undue efficacy attributed to 
baptism. Its sanctity was so exalted that it was 
believed to have power to wash away sins, and 
cleanse the soul for heaven. By it the sick were 
supposed to be prepared for death, and salvation 
made more certain by its efficacy. Anxious parents, 
therefore, desired their dying children to be thus 
prepared — 'washed in the laver of regeneration,' 
as it was termed — that they might be sure of salva- 
tion. And here came in that pernicious error of 
' baptismal regeneration,' which gave rise to infant 
baptism, and which has through all these ages 
clung with more or less pertinacity to the clergy 
and laity of all churches which have practised it " * 

Prof. Lange's words are weighty, and should be 
carefully pondered by Protestant defenders of this 
papal emanation. He says : " Would the Prot- 
estant church fulfill and attain to its final destiny, 
the baptism of new-born children must of necessity 
be abolished. It has sunk down to a mere formal- 
ity, without any meaning for the child." 2 

BAPTISM NOT NECESSARY TO SALVATION. 

Another statement of the Baptist principle is this : 
Baptism is not necessary to salvation. The asser- 
tion sometimes made that Baptists hold that no 

1 Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, "Baptist Standard Manual," p. 134. 

2 "Hist, of Protestantism, " p. 34. 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST 95 

man can be saved unless he is baptized, is the 
falsest and most absurd declaration in ecclesias- 
tical controversy. It is difficult to speak with 
courtesy of such ignorance or malice. The very 
reason why Baptists practise baptism, and not 
some substitute for it, such as pouring or sprin- 
kling, is the fact that they hold that baptism is 
in no way essential to salvation. The history 
of the matter is this : The baptism of the apos- 
tolic churches was immersion, if the tautology 
of the expression may be permitted. So say 
Luther, Calvin, and Wesley ; so say all standard 
church historians, as Dr. Philip Schan^ Dean 
Stanley, Neander, Hase, Guericke, and Kurtz. 
On this point there is absolutely no difference of 
opinion among specialists in church history. No 
writer worthy of being classed with the historians 
named would dissent from their position. There 
is no proof that sprinkling was ever practised be- 
fore the middle of the third century. Take the 
following among many other learned witnesses to 
the meaning of baptism : 

Grimm's " Lexicon of the New Testament," 
which in Europe and America stands confessedly 
at the head of Greek lexicography, as translated 
and edited by Prof. Thayer, of Harvard University, 
thus defines baptizo : "(i) To dip repeatedly, to 
immerse, submerge. (2) To cleanse by dipping or 
submerging. (3) To overwhelm. In the New 
Testament it is used particularly of the rite of 
sacred ablution ; first instituted by John the Bap- 



96 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tist, afterward by Christ's command received by 
Christians and adjusted to the contents and nature 
of their religion, viz., an immersion in water, per- 
formed as a sign of the removal of sin, and admin- 
istered to those who, impelled by a desire for salva- 
tion, sought admission to the benefits of the Mes- 
siah's kingdom. With eis to mark the element 
into which the immersion is made ; en with the 
dative of the thing in which one is immersed." 

Prof. Moses Stuart, one of the ablest scholars 
America has produced, declared : " Baptizo means 
to dip, plunge, or immerse into any liquid. All lex- 
icographers and critics of any note are agreed in 
this." x 

"The Greek language," as Dr. Hiscox has said, 
"is rich in terms for the expression of all positive 
ideas, and all varying shades of thought. Why 
then did our Lord in commanding, and his apostles 
in transmitting his command to posterity, use al- 
ways and only that one word baptizo, to describe 
the action, and that one word baptisma, to describe 
the ordinance to which he intended all his followers 
to submit? The word louo means to wash the 
body, and nipto to wash parts of the body ; but 
these words are not used, because washing is not 
what Christ meant Rantizo means to sprinkle, 
and if sprinkling were baptism this would have 
been the word above all others ; but it was never 
so used. Keo means to pour ; but pouring is not 

1 "Essay on Baptism," p. 51 ; "Biblical Repository," 1833, 
p. 298. 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST 97 

baptism, and so this word was never used to de- 
scribe the ordinance. Katharizo means to purify, 
but is not used for the ordinance. The facts are 
clear and the reasoning conclusive." x 

John Calvin, the great theologian, scholar, and 
commentator, whom Scaliger pronounced the most 
learned man in Europe, says : " From the words 
of John (3 : 23) it may be inferred that baptism 
was administered by John and Christ, by plunging 
the whole body under water." 2 

Luther, the great German Reformer, says : "The 
term baptism is Greek ; in Latin it may be trans- 
lated mersio ; since we immerse anything into 
water, that the whole may be covered with the 
water." 3 

Melancthon, the most scholarly and able co- 
laborer with Luther, says : " Baptism is immersion 
into water, with this admirable benediction." 4 

Adam Clark, the great Methodist commentator, 
says : " Alluding to the immersions practised in the 
case of adults, wherein the person appeared to be 
buried under the water as Christ was buried in the 
heart of the earth." 5 

Frederick Meyer, one of the ablest and most 
accurate exegetes of the present age, says : "Im- 
mersion, which the word in classic Greek and in 
the New Testament ever means." 6 

1 "The Standard Manual," p. 85. 2 Com. on John 3 : 23. 

3 "Works," Vol. I., p. 71, Wit. ed., 1582. 

* Melanct. "Catec. Wit.," 1580. 

5 Com. on Col. 2 : 12. 6 Com. on Mark 7 : 4. 

G 



98 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Dean Alford says : "The baptism was adminis- 
tered by the immersion of the whole person." 1 

Dr. Schaff, the well-known church historian, says : 
" Immersion, and not sprinkling, was unquestion- 
ably the original form. This is shown by the very 
meaning of the words baptizo, baptisma, and bap- 
tismos used to designate the rite." 2 

Dean Stanley, the distinguished scholar and his- 
torian of the Oriental church, says : " The practice 
of the Eastern church and the meaning of the 
word leave no sufficient ground for question that 
the original form of baptism was complete immer- 
sion in the deep baptismal waters." 3 

Prof. Fisher, of Yale College, the accomplished 
scholar and historian, says of the apostolic age : 
"The ordinary mode of baptism was by immer- 
sion." 4 

John Wesley, the celebrated founder of Method- 
ism, says : "Buried with him, alluding to the ancient 
manner of baptizing by immersion." 5 

Neander says : " In respect to the form of bap- 
tism, it was in conformity to the original institu- 
tion, and the original import of the symbol, per- 
formed by immersion, as a sign of entire baptism 
into the Holy Spirit, of being entirely penetrated 
with the same." 6 

1 Greek Testament, Matt. 3 : 6. 

2 "Hist. Apos. Ch.," p. 488, 1851. 

3 "Hist. Eastern Church," p. 34. 

4 " Hist. Christ. Ch.," p. 41. 5 Note on Rom. 6 : 4. 

6 "Ch. Hist.," Vol. I., p. 310; also "Plant, and Train.," Vol. 
I., p. 222. 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST 99 

Schaff says: " Finally, so far as it respects the 
mode and manner of outward baptizing, there can 
be no doubt that immersion, and not sprinkling, was 
the original normal form." 1 

Pressense says : " Baptism, which was the sign 
of admission into the church, was administered by 
immersion. The convert was plunged beneath the 
water, and as he rose from it he received the lay- 
ing-on of hands." 2 

Kurtz says : " Baptism took place by a complete 
immersion." z 

In regard to the teaching of the New Testament 
touching alike the subjects and the act of baptism, 
the scholars of the world are practically unanimous, 
The way that infant baptism and substitutes for 
baptism came to be practised is easily stated. The 
idea had erroneously arisen that no one could be 
saved without baptism, and when a man was con- 
verted on a dying bed when too sick to be bap- 
tized — that is, immersed — the question arose as to 
what should be done. The idea was advanced 
that in such a case of necessity it would suffice to 
pour water on him. Thus the use of pouring 
and sprinkling came in with the unscriptural, un- 
reasonable, and dangerous doctrine that baptism 
was essential to salvation. At first they were used 
only in cases of necessity. In the Greek Church 
immersion is still the standard of baptism. It 

1 "Hist. Christ. Ch.," p. 488. 

2 " Early Years of Christianity," p. 374. 

3 "Ch Hist.," p. 41, 



IOO CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

continued such in the Roman Catholic Church for 
over a thousand years. 

Immersion was the usage in the Church of Eng- 
land down to the time of the Reformation, and is 
still prescribed in the Prayer Book. But pouring 
and sprinkling, from their greater convenience, 
came to be used more and more, till they finally 
largely supplanted baptism. But their use would 
never have been thought of but for the superstitious 
and abominable idea that a man's soul would be 
lost if he died without baptism. Now the Baptist 
declares that baptism is not necessary to salvation. 
He thinks a Christian should be baptized ; he 
thinks a Christian who can obey Christ in this or- 
dinance and refuses to be obedient may imperil his 
salvation, but he does not think it is a thing indis- 
pensable in all circumstances. 

Therefore the Baptist says that if a Christian can 
be baptized according to apostolic usage and divine 
command, he should be ; but if a man is converted 
on a dying bed, when he cannot be baptized, 
let him die without baptism. If a man's physical 
condition makes it impossible to obey the com- 
mand, in his case it is not binding. The thief on 
the cross could not obey this command ; still Jesus 
promised him Paradise that very day. A Baptist 
does not consider that he is ever at liberty to use a 
human substitute, such as pouring or sprinkling, 
for the divine command of baptism. Not consid- 
ering baptism to be essential to salvation, he is not 
troubled at the idea of a convert dying without 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST IOI 

baptism when it is not possible for him to receive 
it. 

It has been said that Baptists make too much 
of baptism ; but, in fact, no religious body, except 
the Quakers, makes so little of it as they. And the 
reason why they do not practise pouring and sprin- 
kling as well as baptism (immersion) is because it 
does not trouble them in the least to let a convert 
who cannot yield obedience in baptism die unbap- 
tized. Their adherence to baptism, which in rare 
cases cannot be administered, shows that they are 
not in the least " ritualistic," but have very low ideas 
as to the necessity of baptism. They, however, re- 
gard Jesus Christ as the only King and Lawgiver in 
Zion, and his word as the sole authority in all mat- 
ters of faith and practice, and so they observe bap- 
tism as he commanded and as the apostles practised 
and taught. And now this Baptist doctrine, that 
baptism is not necessary to salvation, the idea that 
a man's soul will not be lost, even though he dies 
unbaptized, is a doctrine which not only is sup- 
ported by the Bible, but is one which commands 
the respect of men outside the church. The Bap- 
tists are not medievalists, but they are the especial 
exponents of biblical and also of nineteeth century 
ideas. 

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 

Another point in which Baptists are the expo- 
nents both of New Testament and modern ideas is 
their doctrine of religious freedom — the tenet that 
the civil magistrate has no authority over a man's 



102 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

religious creed and usage. This was originally a 
distinctively Baptist idea. For this idea they have 
again and again shed their blood. It is not long 
since that if a man advanced the doctrine of re- 
ligious freedom it was known thereby immediately 
that he was a Baptist. Baptists have been much 
praised for having first preached this great doctrine, 
now held universally in our own country and in- 
creasingly in other lands ; but this doctrine is 
merely a logical deduction from the fundamental 
Baptist principle. 

In the Jewish nation, and for that matter in 
ancient Gentile nations, as for instance the Roman 
Empire, the Church and the State were one. The 
Jewish high priest was a civil officer, and the 
Roman emperor was Pontifex Maximus. The civil 
and the ecclesiastical governments were identical, 
or at least organically affiliated , and of course the 
magistrate had authority in matters of religion. 
And in the Middle Ages the prevalence of the 
doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and the conse- 
quent nearly universal baptism of infants, made 
every child not only a citizen, but also a member 
of the church. Thus Church and State became 
again identical, or at least conterminous, and the 
civil magistrate became the servant of the Church 
as well as the State. 

In the Middle Ages, when there was a full ad- 
herence to the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, 
and of the spiritual efficacy of the mass and other 
ecclesiastical ceremonies, it was logical to believe 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST IO3 

that the civil magistrate could make persons Chris- 
tians. If baptizing a child would change the child's 
spiritual state, if coming to mass would affect a 
man's spiritual nature, all that was necessary to 
make a nation a Christian nation was to enforce by 
law the baptism of children, attendance at mass, 
etc. If salvation came through outward ceremo- 
nies, the observance of which could be compelled 
by force, then it was possible to compel people to 
become Christians. They could not only be led to 
the water of life, but by thumbscrew and fagot 
could be made to drink. And such compulsion 
seemed a solemn duty to those who believed that 
the non-observance of baptism and other ceremo- 
nies left the soul to be lost. But the Baptist doc- 
trine that a man could be made a Christian only 
by the free action of his own spiritual nature left 
the civil magistrate nothing to do. This doctrine 
implied that it was unreasonable as well as unjust 
to strive to force men in religious matters. 

The logical development of Baptist principles 
led to the great doctrine of religious freedom. A 
moment's thought will show that there is no ground 
for saying that the only reason why Baptists did 
not persecute as did others, was because they did 
not have the power so to do. They often had oc- 
casion to speak on this subject. For instance, one 
Thomas Van Imwalt, a Baptist confessor in the 
Tyrol, when examined in prison was asked whether 
in case his people had the power they would not 
force their doctrine on all nations, answered : " No, 



104 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

that it would be foolish for them to endeavor to 
bring any one to belief by force, for God will accept 
only a willing and unconstrained heart." They saw 
that while a man might by force be brought to 
baptism and the Lord's Supper, he could not by 
force be brought to believe. As they believed that 
it was not baptism and other ceremonies, but only 
unconstrained belief that made a man a Christian, 
they never attempted to make a Christian by force 
even when they had the power. 

But the Baptist doctrine that baptizing a person 
would not make him a Christian, the idea that one 
could become a Christian only through an intelli- 
gent personal faith and a spiritual change, suggests 
immediately a separation between citizens and 
church-members, between the civil community and 
the ecclesiastical body. The Baptist idea made the 
church consist not of citizens altogether, but only of 
a separated number. Thus the church became in 
this one particular like a Masonic lodge, a group 
of persons apart from the main body of citizens, and 
thus Church and State were separated. The divorce 
between Church and State was not merely a lucky 
thought of certain Baptist philosophers ; it was the 
logical outcome of distinctive Baptist principles. 
The Baptists preceded other Christians in declar- 
ing the true relation of the civil and ecclesiastical 
powers, not because they were superior to other 
Christians in their understanding of civil principles, 
but because they held an ecclesiastical tenet which 
was correct while other churches were in error. 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST 105 

Others might abstain from persecution because 
their pity was stronger than their creed, but Bap- 
tists refrained from attempting to force men to be- 
come Christians because their fundamental principle 
was that it was impossible to do this. They taught 
that force could- be used to control men's outward 
actions and so keep them from injuring their fellow- 
men, but it could not control the working of their 
hearts so as to make them true Christians. So they 
taught that the civil magistrate should take no cog- 
nizance of the religious beliefs or purely religious 
practices of men, whether orthodox or heretic, Turk 
or heathen, but that these should be left to the 
judgment of God. This Baptist doctrine is not 
only New Testament doctrine but it commands the 
adherence of the best thought of modern times. 
Baptists of to-day are justly proud of their ances- 
tors. They were among the noblest men and 
women in the army of confessors and martyrs. 
They anticipated the ripest thought of to-day. 
They never persecuted, but were always and every- 
where the apostles of religious freedom and soul 
liberty. 

SALVATION OF INFANTS. 

There is a doctrine now held by all intelligent 
Christians which formerly was set forth by Baptists 
alone, namely, the doctrine of the salvation of all 
who die in infancy. It is only in very recent times 
that this doctrine has been generally held. It was 
not very long ago that if a man said the dying in- 
fant of a heathen or Turk was saved, all who heard 



106 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

him knew at once that he was a Baptist. But this 
doctrine, denied by others, was adopted by Baptists 
as a logical outcome of their fundamental principle. 
The doctrine that baptism wrought salvation led to 
the so-called baptism of infants ; infant baptism 
would never have been thought of but for this doc- 
trine of baptismal regeneration. This doctrine is 
the root of which infant baptism is the fruit, and its 
story is one of the most fearful the student of his- 
tory anywhere finds. In Lecky's " History of Ra- 
tionalism " occur the following burning lines : 

According to the unanimous belief of the early church, 
all who were external to Christianity were doomed to 
eternal damnation, and therefore even the new-born in- 
fant was subject to the condemnation, unless baptism 
had united it to the church. At a period which is so 
early that it is impossible to define it, infant baptism was 
introduced into the church ; it was universally said to be 
for the remission of sins, and the whole body of the fathers, 
without exception or hesitation, pronounced that all infants 
who died unbaptized were excluded from heaven. All 
through the Middle Ages we trace the influence of this doc- 
trine in the innumerable superstitious rites which were de- 
vised as substitutes for regular baptism. Nothing, indeed, 
can be more curious, nothing can be more deeply pathetic, 
than the record of the many ways by which the terror- 
stricken mothers attempted to evade the awful sentence of 
their church. Sometimes the baptismal water was sprinkled 
upon the womb ; sometimes the still-born child was bap- 
tized in hopes that the Almighty would antedate the cere- 
mony. These and many similar practices continued all 
through the Middle Ages in spite of every effort to extirpate 
them, and the severest censures were unable to persuade 
the people that they were entirely effectual, for the doctrine 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST IO7 

of the church had wrung the mother' s heart with an agony 
that was too poignant even for that submissive age to bear. 
Weak and superstitious women, who never dreamed of re- 
belling against the teaching of their clergy, could not acqui- 
esce in the perdition of their offspring, and they vainly 
attempted to escape from the dilemma by multiplying 
superstitious practices or by attributing to them a more 
than orthodox efficacy. 

To illustrate Mr. Lecky's remarks, we may quote 
from the decrees of a synod at Cologne in 1280 
A. d. After prescribing immersion as the only reg- 
ular baptism (as it was in the Roman Catholic 
Church for more than a thousand years) it goes on 
to say : "But in case there is fear that an infant will 
die before it is born, if the head of the infant . . . 
some one shall pour water over the head saying, ' I 
baptize thee,' etc." It will not be denied that the 
Caesarean operation has often been performed in 
Roman Catholic countries, and occasionally in other 
countries, that the child may be saved by baptism 
even though the mother should die, her eternal 
safety being already secured. One does not like 
to refer to matters of this delicate nature ; but it is 
time that the superstitions and barbarities which 
are thus connected with infant baptism were re- 
buked with great plainness of speech as unworthy 
even of the most degraded heathen. Some have 
called infant baptism a beautiful ceremony. But, 
in fact, it is the efflorescence of a most gross super- 
stition, and viewed in the light of Church history 
it is only horrible and repulsive. As the little in- 
fant is borne in its gay robes down the aisle, the 



108 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

language of the ceremonial is that except some 
drops of water be sprinkled on its forehead that 
beautiful little being would writhe in the flames of 
hell. Who dares, even in symbol, teach so horrible 
a doctrine ? How can a few drops of water, or an 
ocean, change the child's relations to God ? In any 
case, the child has no more penal sin than a rose or 
a snowflake. 

The doctrine that all dying in infancy are saved 
was first taught by the Baptists. They held that 
not only an adult believer would be saved, though 
he died without baptism, but that all dying in in- 
fancy were saved. This doctrine continually ap- 
pears in the charges against Baptists who were put 
to death for their faith. For instance, Henry Craut, 
Justus Mueller, and John Peisker were beheaded at 
Jena, in 1536, not by Roman Catholics, but by their 
Protestant brethren, the Lutherans. Among their 
announced views was the doctrine that "all infants, 
even those of Turks, Gentiles, and Hebrews, are 
saved without baptism." The first time this doc- 
trine appears in a non-Baptist creed it is mentioned 
only to be condemned. The Augsburg Confession 
of 1530 says : " Damnant Anabaptistas, qui impro- 
bant baptismum puerorum et affirmant pueros sine 
baptismo salvos fieri" "They [the churches putting 
forth this creed] condemn the Anabaptists [a nick- 
name of the Baptists] who reject the baptism of 
children and declare that children are saved with- 
out baptism." 

Even in our own country similar opposition was 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST IO9 

once manifested against the Baptist faith. When 
Clarke, Holmes, and Crandall were imprisoned and 
fined in Boston, Mr. Clarke, when standing stripped 
at the whipping-post, had his fine paid by a hu- 
mane man, who was greatly affected by the sight 
of a scholar, a gentleman, and a divine in such a 
situation. On asking, " What law of God or men 
had he (Clarke) broken ? " Endicott replied to 
Clarke : " You have denied infant baptism, and de- 
serve death." Persecution of these who so deny is 
the natural result of the belief which led to the 
practice of infant baptism. We again affirm that it 
is a practice contrary to Scripture, even as inter- 
preted by non-Baptist scholars, and also to the 
sound reason of all intelligent men who are not 
prejudiced by early training and one-sided edu- 
cation. 

SUMMARY. 

To sum up, I would say that the fundamental 
principle of the Baptists, and one formerly held by 
them alone, is that a man's salvation depends solely 
on personal faith in Christ and the resultant change 
of inward character, and not on baptism and other 
church ordinances. As a result, they affirm that 
faith must be personal ; that no man can believe 
for another, no parent for a child ; and that, there- 
fore, the church is not made up of " believers and 
their children," except so far as the children are 
themselves believers. They hold that any other 
view of the church is without the authority of 
Scripture or common sense. They administer bap- 



IIO CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tism only to those who profess faith in Christ and 
give evidence in daily life of having been converted. 
They administer immersion, the act of baptism in 
the apostolic church, and when this is impracticable 
they let the convert die without baptism. Holding 
that a man is not made a Christian by baptism and 
other outward acts, but only by a change in his 
spiritual nature, which cannot be brought out by 
force, they therefore insist that no outward force or 
form shall be used to make men Christians, and 
that the civil magistrate shall confine himself en- 
tirely to civil affairs, not interfering in purely 
religious matters. Holding that baptism is not nec- 
essary to salvation, they hold that not only believing 
adults, but also all who die in infancy, even heathen 
children, are saved. 

These ideas, which not very long ago were held 
by Baptists alone, are now held by the most en- 
lightened men outside the Baptist ranks, and I 
consider them also the teachings of the New 
Testament. This is another reason "why I am a 
Baptist" 

If I take the Bible only as my guide, I must be 
a Baptist ; if I discard it, and take the traditions of 
men, I could not consistently stop until I had 
reached Rome. But I am not likely to start on 
that downward grade. If I were not a Baptist, 
logically I should have to be a Roman Catholic. 
The Catholics are perfectly consistent, but unscrip- 
tural ; grant their premises, and logically you must 
adopt their conclusions. The Baptists are also 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST I I I 

consistent and at the same time scriptural ; grant 
the Baptist premise, and you must accept the Bap- 
tist conclusion. But the Congregationalists, the 
Methodists, the Presbyterians, and the Episcopa- 
lians are not consistent. Their position is half- Ro- 
manist, half-Baptist. They have no logical stand- 
ing-ground. There are but two consistent and 
logical positions, one of which is held by the Ro- 
manists and the other by the Baptists. Every 
consistent, logical, and unprejudiced thinker will 
take one or the other. Here on the word of God, 
Baptists stand ; they are consistent Protestants ; 
they antedate existing denominational divisions ; 
they are truly apostolic. Baptism is the catholic 
and apostolic ordinance. Their position is impreg- 
nable. Historically, Baptists are not Protestants ; 
doctrinally, they are the most consistent Protes- 
tants. While the Bible stands they shall stand, and 
the "word of God shall stand forever." God has 
given them wonderful prosperity. They are in- 
creasing in the United States to-day much faster 
than the population of this the most rapidly popu- 
lating country in the world ; they are in sympathy 
with all progressive American ideas, and at the 
same time are loyal to the word of God. They 
love their brethren of all denominations ; they are 
ready to unite with them in all forms of Christian 
activity. They use constantly the Master's prayer 
for his disciples — "that they all may be one, as 
thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they 
may also be one in us." 



112 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

If ever there is organic unity, it will begin at 
the baptistery. Every denomination in Protestant 
Christendom and in the entire Roman and Greek 
Churches can agree upon baptism, that is, immer- 
sion, as taught by our Lord and his apostles. The 
Greek Church, numbering quite ninety million ad- 
herents, has ever been a stout witness on behalf of 
baptism. The Roman Church joyfully accepts it, 
and all the Protestant churches join hands with 
these two great bodies. On no substitute for bap- 
tism can all the denominations agree. We are not 
now arguing a point ; we are simply stating an in- 
controvertible fact. Do men really want organic 
Christian union ? Are they in earnest when they 
proclaim this desire? Are they willing to follow 
Christ into the waters of baptism? Are they will- 
ing to join hands with their brethren in all centuries 
and in all climes ? Here is the opportunity ; here 
is the truly apostolic and catholic ordinance. As- 
suming for the moment that Christ and his apostles 
intended to teach the two-fold idea that believers 
are the true subjects and immersion is the act of 
baptism, could they have chosen language which 
would more fittingly express this two-fold idea than 
the words they employ? If their words do not 
teach these truths can the Greek tongue, the most 
exact of all languages, teach these truths ? Those 
are fair questions ; and to them candor compels us 
to reply that the language of Christ and his apostles 
is unmistakable in its meaning. That it could ever 
have been misunderstood is well-nigh incredible. 



REASONS FOR BEING A BAPTIST II3 

If they will but follow apostolic injunction and 
example then all can say, " We are buried with 
him by baptism unto death." And then there may 
be, if it is desired, organic union without doing 
violence to the convictions of any, and in acknowl- 
edged harmony with the word of God and its rec- 
ognized interpretations. On but few points is the 
scholarship of the world so nearly a unit as it is in 
regard to the meaning of the word " baptism," and 
as to the practice of the apostles and the early 
church. It would be easy to fill pages with the 
names of learned authorities on all these points, 
and the simple-minded disciple of the Lord Jesus, 
with no guide but the New Testament, comes to 
the same conclusion. May the Holy Spirit lead all 
believers into all truth ! 



V 

BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 1 

THE polity of all the denominations has been 
severely tested within the past few years. 
The Presbyterian Church has been greatly agitated 
over the ecclesiastical trials of Professor Briggs and 
Professor Smith ; the Episcopal Church has passed 
through somewhat similar experiences, and has 
had to exclude some of its clergy from its fellow- 
ship. Occasionally Baptist brethren wish that our 
polity was more mechanical, formal, and authorita- 
tive. So soon as any ecclesiastical difficulty arises 
among us, these brethren express their sympathy 
with the polity of some other churches, and their 
dissatisfaction with that of our own denomination. 

But recent events have more than justified the 
practical wisdom and confirmed the scriptural 
authority of our prevailing polity. It is utterly 
impossible that trials like those of Professor Briggs 
and Professor Smith could arise in the Baptist de- 
nomination. There is no church to-day in which 
the law of moral affinity is so constantly and com- 
pletely manifested as in the Baptist churches of 
America. Men among us who are not of us go 

1 Delivered before the Young Men's Baptist Social Union of 
Boston, March, 1896. 
114 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS I I 5 

out from us, in harmony with the law of moral and 
spiritual gravitation. This fact is one of the inter- 
esting features of our denominational life. The 
bond which holds us together as members and as 
churches is often said to be as weak as a rope of 
sand ; but it is not a mere paradox to say that its 
acknowledged weakness is a marked element of its 
inherent strength. 

We have no creed in the technical sense of 
that term ; but we are more a unit to-day in faith 
and practice than any other religious body in the 
United States. We are held together by loyalty 
to the word of God as the rule of our faith and 
practice ; and as a matter of fact we find it easier 
to understand the divine teachings as recorded 
in the divine word, than to interpret the creeds 
which are supposed to set forth the divine teach- 
ing. The unwritten British constitution has proved 
to be as binding as any written document expres- 
sive of a nation's fealty to history, to law, and to 
authority. In like manner the unwritten creed of 
the Baptist churches is expressive, forceful, under- 
standable, and authoritative to a remarkable de- 
gree. 

Not long ago, in a company of pastors and 
other clergymen representing all the leading Prot- 
estant denominations, a clergyman of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church used these words: "In one 
sense Baptists have no creed ; but in another sense 
they have a stronger creed than that of any one of 
our churches; he [the Baptist] then [in the bap- 



Il6 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tistery] virtually announces his creed touching his 
personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, 
and his determination to follow him in obedience 
to the teachings of the gospel. He then submits 
to the act of baptism. This act is in itself the 
most expressive and beautiful of all creeds ; it sets 
forth a death to sin, a burial as thus dead, and a 
resurrection as thus made alive in Christ and 
promising to walk in newness of life." This gen- 
tleman then added with the utmost emphasis : 
" Would to God that the Anglican and Episco- 
pal Churches had never departed from the prim- 
itive and apostolic baptism, and if they are wise 
they will return to its observance at the earliest 
possible day." He gave me liberty to quote his 
words, else I should not so do in this address. 

The time is speedily coming when no denomi- 
nation making any pretense to be abreast of the 
thought of the day will fail to have a baptistery in 
all its churches. It is affirmed that Dr. Henry C. 
Potter, bishop of the Episcopal churches in New 
York City, has determined to put a baptistery into 
the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, now in course 
of erection. It is not too much to say that in a 
quarter of a century a church without a baptistery 
will be an exception to the rule of churches in all 
denominations. Baptism is the great apostolic and 
catholic ordinance. No scholar of any reputation 
will oppose this statement. It is astonishing that 
churches of so many denominations have so long 
been governed by prejudice, tradition, and super- 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 11 J 

stition, rather than by the simple, beautiful, and 
authoritative teaching and example of Christ and 
his apostles. No church can rightly claim to be 
Protestant while practising infant baptism. This 
rite has no authority in the New Testament ; and 
Protestant churches which practise this relic of Ro- 
manism have in so far ceased to be Protestant, and 
have gone over to the ground of the Romanist. 

CHURCH UNITY. 

Church unity, even if it were desirable, will never 
be secured by insistence on the authority of the 
historic creeds. The more we know of the manner 
in which these creeds were formulated, the less 
authority can we attach to their teaching. They 
often obscure the truth which they are supposed 
plainly to declare ; they are often far more difficult 
of comprehension than are the Scriptures on which 
the creeds are supposed to be based. 

THE APOSTLES' CREED. 

The so-called Apostles' Creed is an early sum- 
mary of the Christian faith, with most of whose 
statements most of us are heartily agreed. We 
fully appreciate the high praise which Augustine 
gives it when he says regarding it, "Regulafidei 
brevis et grandis ; brevis numero verborum, grandis 
ponder e sententiarum." It is to be highly esteemed 
as a compendium of doctrine, for its intrinsic worth, 
and for the veneration in which it has been so long 
and so deservedly held by many bodies of Chris- 



Il8 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tians. One can almost agree with Dr. Schaff when 
he says that though it is " not in form the produc- 
tion of the apostles, it is a faithful compend of 
their doctrines, and comprehends the leading arti- 
cles of the faith in the Triune God and his revela- 
tion, from the creation to the life everlasting, in 
sublime simplicity, in unsurpassable brevity, in the 
most beautiful order, and with liturgical solemnity ; 
and to this day it is the common bond of Greek, 
Roman, and evangelical Christendom." 

We object, however, to its title. It is not, in any 
natural sense of the word, the Apostles' Creed ; it 
never ought to have been called by this name. This 
title is an example of what has been called "a pious 
fraud." All investigators now heartily agree that 
the so-called Athanasian Creed was not the work of 
the famous Athanasius, although it bears his name. 
Dr. Swainson does not hesitate to ascribe the origin 
of this title to a deliberate purpose to practise an 
imposition. He classified this purpose with that 
which led to the " False Decretals," and the " Dona- 
tion of Constantine." So we may say of the name 
of this other creed. The apostles never saw the 
creed to which their name is attached ; they never 
heard of it, and perhaps would not be willing to en- 
dorse it in all its parts as we now have it. It may be 
said that the title is now used with the understand- 
ing that it is simply a truthful compend of apostolic 
doctrine ; that it sets forth apostolic principles of 
faith in God and in his revelation. 

But the title was intended to convey quite a dif- 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS II9 

ferent meaning ; it was intended to convey the idea, 
which the Roman Church now clearly teaches, that 
its clauses were actually contributed by the apostles. 
This church, under the authority of a writer under 
the name of Augustine, undertakes to name the 
clauses given by the different apostles. To the his- 
torical compiler and traditionalist Rufinus, of the 
fourth century, we are indebted for the earliest ac- 
counts of the origin of this creed. He affirmed 
that the apostles, before separating to the different 
nations, agreed upon "a form of sound words," and 
that when met together they composed this com- 
pend under the special influence of the Holy Ghost. 
He gives his authority from some writer named 
Augustine. Some suppose him to be St. Augus- 
tine, and it is claimed that the legend is found in 
the appendix to his work ; but careful historic in- 
quiry shows that it is based on two discourses spu- 
riously attributed to him. He pretends to tell us 
what article was contributed by each apostle. He 
thus affirms, " Petrus dixit, Credo in Deum Patrem 
omnipotentem. Johannes dixit, Creatorem coeli et 
terrce" James, " and in Jesus Christ his only Son 
our Lord" ; Andrew, "who was conceived by the 
Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary" ; and so to 
Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, and others, 
various parts of this creed are assigned. 

But no careful historic student attaches impor- 
tance to-day to this testimony of Rufinus. We know 
that neither the Evangelist Luke in the Acts of the 
Apostles, nor any ecclesiastical writer before the 



120 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

fifth century makes mention of any assembly of the 
Apostles for the purpose of forming a creed of any 
sort. We know also that none of the Fathers of 
the first three centuries, although often engaged in 
disputes with various heretics, ever endeavored to 
support their doctrines by referring to the creed 
prepared and promulgated by the apostles. Not 
one of these Fathers ever pretended thaf the apos- 
tles composed this creed. We may be sure that if 
they so believed they would have so affirmed and 
this creed would have been taught in all the 
churches from the earliest ages. There were parts 
of creeds extant in the fourth century, but they 
differed considerably among themselves, and also 
from this so-called Apostles' Creed. We can read- 
ily understand that parts of creeds would grow up 
in an early age in the history of the church. 
When the Apostle Peter answered the question of 
Christ, "Whom do men say that I am?" with the 
words, "Thou art the Christ," he gave one article 
of a creed. The baptismal formula contains sug- 
gestions which could readily be expanded into 
creedal statements. We also have a suggestion of 
a definite summary of belief in 2 Tim. 1 : 3, where 
reference is made to a "form of sound words" ; 
also in the expression "faithful saying." But no 
attempt was made in the early centuries to prepare 
a complete compend of doctrine as an authoritative 
creed. 

We know also that the so-called Apostles' Creed 
was not admitted at an early age into the liturgy, 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 121 

although candidates for baptism may have been re- 
quired to subscribe to parts of it. It first ap- 
peared in public worship as instituted in the Greek 
Church at Antioch. It does not seem to have been 
introduced in the Roman Church until the eleventh 
century; and from the Roman Church it passed 
into the Church of England at the time of the Ref- 
ormation. The Westminster divines added it, with 
the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, to 
their catechism ; but distinctly explained in a note, 
that it was simply a brief summary of the Chris- 
tian faith agreeable to the word of God. The 
most that can be claimed for the title, Apostles' 
Creed, is that it fairly represents the facts of Chris- 
tian faith as taught by the apostles. 

We also know well that the clauses relating to the 
descent into hell and to the communion of saints 
are of later origin than are other portions of the 
creed. It may be affirmed that the so-called Apos- 
tles' Creed was substantially in existence from the 
end of the fourth century ; but in its completed form 
it cannot be traced to a period earlier than about 
the middle of the eighth century. If this state- 
ment is correct, then it is about four centuries 
later in its present form than the earlier forms of 
the Nicene Creed. The clause, " He descended 
into hell," is one whose origin is involved in great 
doubt, and whose teachings are not accepted by 
many devout believers and profound scholars. 
We know that an alternative form is suggested, and 
if that form were universally adopted, fewer criti- 



122 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

cisms would be pronounced upon this ancient and 
confessedly beautiful compend of doctrine. But 
it would be much better to omit this objectionable 
clause. It adds nothing valuable to the thoughts 
expressed by the associated clauses. It is quite 
unnecessary to state — especially as the Scripture is 
doubtful on the point — where our Lord was be- 
tween his crucifixion and resurrection. 

Thus a few changes and omissions would greatly 
add to the value of this creed for popular use, and 
such changes have, in some publications, been 
made. Men to-day are quite as competent to 
make changes as were those who made other 
changes through several centuries. We can do 
our thinking to-day quite as well as other men 
who did theirs in their day. Each age must do its 
own thinking. The tendency is to give the truths 
taught by Christ precise dogmatic statements. 
Formulations of Christian doctrine are the ex- 
pression of the Christian consciousness and rea- 
son of different periods. This fact makes a judi- 
cious study of creeds peculiarly valuable. The 
early object of the creeds was to distinguish be- 
tween Christians on the one hand and Jews and 
Pagans on the other ; but no creed ought ever to 
be the rule of faith. That position and authority 
belong to the Bible alone. 

THE NICENE CREED. 

To the Nicene Creed more serious objection may 
be offered. The circumstances of its origin tend 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 1 23 

greatly to lessen the authority of its statements. 
We know that the controversies regarding the per- 
son and work of Christ, which began in the second 
century, were prolonged into the third and fourth 
centuries under various phases of belief and state- 
ment. Ebionitism affirmed that Christ was merely 
a Jewish teacher of ability and worth ; and Theo- 
dotus openly taught this doctrine in Rome near the 
close of the second century. Others so identified 
Christ with the Godhead as to destroy his person- 
ality. Paul of Samosata reduced Christ to the level 
of a mere man ; and Sabellius, recognizing the 
divinity of Christ, made him merely a manifestation 
of the Father. Arius grew up in the midst of these 
controversies. He became a presbyter of Alex- 
andria. He believed that Christ, although in some 
sense divine, was not truly God. Then Athanasius 
came forward as his opponent, and as the champion 
of orthodoxy. This creed thus sprang out of the 
heart of this long and troublous conflict ; it was 
literally a compromise, and it is to be received only 
as such. 

In the council held in 325 at Nicaea, sum- 
moned by Constantine, there were three distinct 
parties — the Athanasian, the Eusebian, and the 
Arian. The Arian, or heretical party, was com- 
paratively few in numbers, and Arius being only a 
presbyter had no seat in the conclave ; its direct 
influence was not great at any time in the council, 
but its indirect influence through the Eusebian or 
middle party was marked at every stage of the dis- 



124 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

cussion. For a time this middle party was able to 
hold the orthodox, or Athanasian party, with a firm 
grasp. The chief purpose of Constantine in calling 
this council was to establish throughout his domin- 
ions unity in forms of faith and worship. There is 
no detailed report of its proceedings, although both 
Eusebius and Athanasius wrote accounts of it. 
Dean Stanley says, "We know not whether it lasted 
weeks or days." The Confession produced by 
Eusebius of Caesarea, as that of the church of Pales- 
tine, was favored by Constantine, and was acceptable 
to the Arians ; but this latter fact led the orthodox 
to oppose it. The expressions, Homoousion, the same 
nature or substance, and Homoiousion, of like na- 
ture or substance, became the battleground between 
the parties. The Arians violently condemned the 
first term. But the assent of the emperor was 
gained, and Hosius of Cordova announced the creed 
of the church as settled. 

We all admit that there was much that was 
grand and imposing in the Nicene Council. No 
church council so imposing had met previous to 
that time, and perhaps few of like character have 
met since. But we know also that at times this 
council conducted itself in a manner altogether 
unbecoming a solemn assembly of Christian men 
met for a high and holy purpose. Drafts of creeds 
were torn in pieces by the excited assembly, and 
the "lord of misrule" reigned occasionally with 
uninterrupted sway. The council was at times 
more like a ward caucus of average politicians than 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 125 

like a council of grave and reverent men. Even 
the presence of soldiers as police officers could not 
prevent shameful outbreaks. 

It is also true that the Nicene Creed does not 
now appear in its original form, and the history of 
many of its later clauses is involved in great obscu- 
rity. Whether they are to be attributed to the 
Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Council is not generally 
known even by the most careful investigators. Some 
affirm that the enlarged creed appears in a work 
written before the meeting of this latter council. 
The exact facts probably never will be known. It 
must be admitted also that these creeds are not to 
any degree conservators of doctrine ; they are often 
divisive rather than unitive. The Nicene Creed did 
not stop the sway of Arianism even at the time ; it 
magnified, and in a certain sense dignified, Arian- 
ism, and led, for a time at least, to its more rapid 
spread. Creeds are not conservative of doctrine 
in England or in America to-day. The churches 
whose creeds are longest and strongest differ more 
among themselves as to their faith and practice than 
do churches in which there is no creed, in the tech- 
nical sense of that term. This is not the expression 
of an opinion ; it is not the formulation of an argu- 
ment ; it is simply the statement of a historic fact. 

The Nicene Creed, moreover, is in some of its 
parts too abstruse, too metaphysical and philo- 
sophical for general adoption. It is difficult for 
any man to give a clear interpretation of some of 
its expressions. There may be doubt as to whether 



126 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

the forms in which it appears in English properly 
represent the thought of the original ; but the inter- 
pretation, after a true translation has been made, is 
much more difficult than the translation itself. It 
would puzzle any teacher of religion to make an 
explanatory statement of some clauses in this creed 
which would be intelligible to the minds of immature 
thinkers and inexperienced believers, or even to 
those of maturity and experience. That creeds 
have their use we do not for a moment deny ; but 
that they should be thrust between the Christian 
and his Bible we do not for a moment believe. 

Whatever tends to dethrone or even to disparage 
the word of God, is so far to be rejected. We are 
unable to see the advantage of emphasizing the 
value of elaborate creeds. We cannot discover 
their practical use in Christian life and work, and 
we know that in many instances they have divided 
the church, when a simpler statement of God's 
word would have united God's people. It is often 
much more difficult, as already suggested, to inter- 
pret the creeds than to interpret the Scriptures on 
which their statements are supposed to be based. 
The Nicene Creed did not settle the contradictory 
opinions in the church at that time. Especially 
was the doctrine of the person of Christ immedi- 
ately disputed by the Arians, the semi-Arians, and 
Eusebians. There was also difference of opinion as 
to whether or not the Holy Spirit was created by 
the Father. Several synods met, but failed to agree 
upon any statement regarding these and other mat- 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS \2J 

ters. The result was that certain additions to the 
Nicene Creed were adopted at the second Ecu- 
menical Council at Constantinople, a. d. 381. Not 
until the fifth century were the words, " and from 
the Son" (Filioque) added. The Filioque clause 
was adopted by the Western churches at the coun- 
cil of Toledo in the year 589 ; but this creed has 
remained without this clause as the ecumenical 
creed of the Eastern Church. The fact is, in pro- 
portion as creeds become inclusive they also become 
exclusive. They are, therefore, as was said before, 
divisive rather than unitive. 

THE ATHANASIAN CREED. 

The so-called Athanasian Creed, or the Symbolum 
Quicunque, as it is often called, is known as one of 
the three great creeds of the church ; but no intel- 
ligent student now supposes that it was prepared 
by Athanasius, the famous Father of the fourth cen- 
tury, whose name it bears. He himself nowhere 
mentions it in any of the older MSS. of his works ; 
neither do any of his contemporaries, or writers im- 
mediately following him. A careful examination 
of its contents shows that it could not have been 
written by him, as it omits points which were vital 
in his time. He certainly would not have omitted 
the word " Homoousion," consubstantial, which in 
his day marked the distinction between the Atha- 
nasians and the Arians ; but this word nowhere ap- 
pears in the creed, an inexplicable omission in a 
creed composed by him. Furthermore, it is in 



128 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Latin, as its original language, and Athanasius wrote 
in Greek. It is entirely unknown in the Greek 
Church until about the year iooo. Late in the 
sixth or early in the seventh century this creed be- 
came the subject of general comment ; but not 
until still later did it acquire the title Athanasian. 
Its existence, even in the Latin Church, is doubtful 
before the end of the eighth or the beginning of 
the ninth century. This title probably was given 
it during the Arian controversies in Gaul, as this 
creed was supposed to express the views of Atha- 
nasius. 

We do not know who was its author ; probably 
its authorship will never be known. It has been 
attributed to many men in many countries, but no 
authoritative statement can be made. Prominent 
men of the Church of England, while adopting 
the creed as a whole, strongly disapprove of its 
damnatory clauses. These clauses are quite shock- 
ing in their severity and assumption ; indeed, they 
are little less than blasphemous. It is difficult to 
conceive how uninspired men dare so pronounce 
condemnation upon their fellow-men. Rather than 
be obliged to recite such a creed, many excellent 
Christian men would become open infidels ; indeed, 
the tendency of such creeds is to multiply unbe 
lievers. Although received in the Greek, Roman, 
and Anglican Churches, this creed is omitted from 
the service of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
America. Its omission led to very sharp discus- 
sion, but its opponents prevailed. How can men 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 129 

without doing violence to all their reasoning 
powers, adopt creeds which attribute regenerating 
power to baptism, infant or adult, creeds which 
affirm the existence and purifying power of pur- 
gatory, and which teach as true the dogma of 
transubstantiation, or even consubstantiation ? The 
fact is, that several so-called Christian creeds con- 
tain no small amount of heathen superstition rather 
than the principles of a sound Christianity; and 
these principles are taught in Protestant as well as 
in Roman churches. A scriptural Christianity re- 
pudiates these errors in toto. Such doctrines are 
alike unscriptural and unreasonable. If such teach- 
ings were true Christianity, many true men would 
rather be intelligent unbelievers than the supersti- 
tious devotees which honest faith in such teachings 
necessitates. It is known that ministers of some 
Anglican churches ask their assistants to recite parts 
of the so-called Athanasian Creed. Such creeds 
are a temptation to intellectual inanity or moral 
dishonesty. Better fully believe few things than 
half believe many things. 

LATER CREEDS. 

After the so-called Athanasian Creed there are 
no general symbols of faith worthy of attention until 
the Reformation. At the Council of Trent, 1 545 
to 1563, the Church of Rome found it necessary to 
give a more detailed statement of doctrine than 
could be found in any of its previous creeds ; this 
became a necessity because of the aggressions of 



I30 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Protestantism. The council sat at intervals for 
eighteen years, sometimes at Bologna, but chiefly 
at Trent, hence the name of the council. The de- 
crees of Trent are the fixed and authoritative sym- 
bols of that church. Since the Reformation the 
most noted Confessions are the Lutheran, the Cal- 
vinistic, or Reformed, the Anglican, or Thirty-nine 
Articles of the Church of England, and the Puri- 
tan, or Westminster Confession. 

The first of the Lutheran Confessions is the 
Confessio Augustana, or Confession of Augsburg. 
This was compiled by Melanchthon and presented 
to the Emperor Charles V., in 1530, in the name 
of the Evangelical States of Germany. The Thirty- 
nine Articles began with the ten of 1536, then at- 
tained the number of forty-two in 1552, and were 
finally settled as thirty-nine, 1 562-1 571, and are 
supposed to have been chiefly composed by Cran- 
mer. In 1 5 7 1 they were revised by convocation 
and Parliament. The Calvinistic or Reformed 
churches gave us numerous Confessions. The 
principal are : (1) the Helvetic Confession; (2) the 
Tetrapolitan Confession, 1531 ; (3) the Gallic Con- 
fession, 1559; (4) the Palatine, or Heidelberg Con- 
fession, 1575 ; and (5) the Belgic Confession, 1559. 

The Westminster Confession was the result of 
the great Puritan excitements of the seventeenth 
century. The Long Parliament in 1640 set itself 
to consider the question of the reformation of 
religion. On November 23, 1641, "The Famous 
Remonstrance," suggesting the calling of a synod 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 1 3 I 

to settle the peace and good government of the 
church, was passed. Out of this proposal came the 
Westminster Assembly. The ordinance summoning 
it was issued June 12, 1643. Among the notable 
divines participating in these great deliberations 
were Rutherford, Gillespie, Henderson, Lightfoot, 
Coleman, and Selden. The stamp of Calvinistic 
Presbyterianism is on all the acts of the assembly. 
The sittings began in 1643, and continued until 
February 22, 1649; an d during these five years 
and a half there were one thousand one hundred 
and sixty-three sessions. As this is the latest so it 
is the most elaborate of the creeds. The Confession 
is a comprehensive summary of theological doc- 
trines ; it is prepared with great logical skill and 
rhetorical beauty. It is a remarkable monument 
of learning and piety ; and it strongly expresses 
the dominant thought of a great spiritual movement 
which has colored the history of nations and the 
principles and practices of several denominations. 
All students of theology and of national reform 
ought to be familiar with this great Confession. In 
1643 the assembly, through the influence of Dr. 
Lightfoot, voted by a majority of one against giving 
the choice as between immersion and sprinkling as 
baptism ; and in the year following Parliament sanc- 
tioned their decision and decreed that sprinkling 
should be the legal mode of baptism. It is inter- 
esting that it was a human Parliament and not the 
divine word, which was the ultimate authority re- 
garding baptism. 



132 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The Westminster Confession, as I have already 
remarked, is a document remarkable for its rhetori- 
cal skill, for its scholarly breadth, and for its Christian 
devotion. No one can speak lightly of so historic, 
learned, and devout a Confession. Were your speaker 
a Presbyterian, he should strongly oppose the revi- 
sion of this historic confession ; it ought rather to be 
left intact as a monument to the wisdom and theo- 
logical learning of its age. If the Presbyterian 
Church must have a Confession, let a new one be 
made rather than attempt to cut, trim, and remodel 
the Westminster Confession. But these great creeds 
do not conserve doctrines. The Westminster Con- 
fession does not secure unity now in the Presbyterian 
Church. Of what practical gain are these creeds 
to-day? The Baptist denomination has no creed, 
in the technical sense of the term ; and yet with its 
nearly four million members ill America to-day, it 
is more nearly a unit in faith and practice than are 
the churches with their "long and strong creeds." 
This is a fact which no intelligent student of current 
church history will deny. Better far it is to go at 
once to the word of God as the rule of faith and 
practice than allow the creeds of very fallible men — 
creeds which were the result often of unscriptural 
compromises — to come between the conscience and 
its God. 

"THE HISTORIC EPISCOPATE." 

The Lambeth Conference made much use of the 
term "Historic Episcopate," in discussing the ques- 



BAPTIST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 1 33 

tion of church unity. It was proposed that the 
Historic Episcopate be " locally adapted in the 
methods of its administration to the varied needs 
of the nations and peoples called of God into the 
unity of his church." When one analyzes the re- 
marks made regarding the Historic Episcopate, he 
inevitably finds an implication of the so-called 
apostolic succession. So long as this implication is 
present, a great majority of Christians will refuse to 
endorse the Historic Episcopate. The apostles had 
no successors, and, in the very nature of the case, 
could not have successors. The Roman Church 
puts forward the claim of an unbroken succession 
in the most dogmatic terms. This church excom- 
municates all other branches of the church, calling 
them heretic and schismatic. Many in Europe 
who call themselves Protestants of various names, 
ape the Roman Church in this regard. The Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church in the United States, and 
some other churches of various names, pride them- 
selves on their apostolic succession. But we know 
that it was necessary that an apostle should have 
seen the Lord ; the office, therefore, was incapable 
of succession as soon as the original eye-witnesses 
had passed away. The claim of an uninterrupted 
clerical succession cannot be substantiated by satis- 
factory proof. All churches that make this claim 
trace their^line, to some degree at least, through 
the channels of the Roman pontifs ; but many of the 
records of these early popes are lost and can never 
be found. We do not know that the Apostle Peter 



134 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

ever acted as bishop in Rome. The fact is that this 
boasted lineage is a worthless myth. The claim 
made by some churches is offensive to other church- 
men ; it is promotive of bigotry and destructive of 
the spirit of unity. It tends constantly toward a 
dangerous exclusiveness ; it is also as unwise in 
policy as it is uncharitable in principle. 

Dr. G. A. Jacob, late head-master of Christ's 
Hospital, and the author of the " Ecclesiastical 
Polity of the New Testament," says: "The apos- 
tles had no successors in their office ; they stand 
alone as the divinely inspired teachers, legislators, 
and rulers in Christ's church and kingdom." With 
this statement unprejudiced church writers will gen- 
erally and heartily agree. In the very nature of 
the case the apostles could not have successors. It 
is not possible that the great majority of believers 
can accept the Historic Episcopate, as the term 
is ordinarily understood, as a basis of unity in the 
church of Jesus Christ. 

More and more do Baptists see the wisdom of 
making the word of God the only rule of faith 
and practice. It cannot share its divine author- 
ity with creeds made by men. It has an enlarg- 
ing, expanding, and self-adapting meaning which 
makes it the book of all centuries and countries. 
Human creeds are stiff, cold, formal, and mechan- 
ical ; but the word of God is living afcd life-giv- 
ing. Let us love it, obey it, and rejoice in it 
To support its teachings our Baptist fathers lived 
and died. We belong to a noble army of Bap- 



BAFriST POLITY AND HISTORIC CREEDS 1 35 

tist confessors and martyrs. No church has given 
nobler testimony to the teaching of the Bible. The 
Baptist who is not joyful in and grateful for his 
ancient, heroic, and sainted ancestry must be hope- 
lessly ignorant of a brave history, or hopelessly 
indifferent to the chivalrous, loyal, and divine in 
human character and in Christian fealty. The 
Baptist who is ashamed of his principles is a Bap- 
tist of whom his principles might well be ashamed. 
Let us stand loyally and lovingly by our ancient 
faith, our historic position, and our Holy Bible. 
While it stands we shall stand, and "the word of 
our God shall stand forever. 



VI 

HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 

THE Baptist denomination, in its present form, 
arose about three hundred years ago — that 
is, in the early Stuart period in England and in the 
early colonial period in this country. This, how- 
ever, is by no means the date of its origin ; for it 
stands closely related to preceding bodies of sub- 
stantially the same character. Its principles are 
those of Christ, and the apostles ; and these princi- 
ples have found embodiment in many ages and 
countries, by those who were often hidden from 
public gaze, often cruelly persecuted, and some of 
whom witnessed for their faith by giving their lives. 
To understand the historic relations of the Baptists 
to other Christians, we must glance backward over 
the earlier centuries of the church. 

The fundamental principle of the Baptist is that 
salvation comes only through personal faith in the 
Lord Jesus ; that baptism and other ecclesiastical 
ceremonies are nothing but symbols of spiritual 
truths, and that they do not work salvation, nor are 
essential to salvation. This doctrine, now held by 
many other Christians, was in earlier centuries 

1 Written for and printed in the " National Tribune," Washing- 
ton, D. C, 1891. 
136 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 37 

preached by the Baptists alone ; and it is the con- 
troversy over this principle which gave rise in many 
localities to Baptist churches as witnesses for the 
truth. 

The admonition of the apostles was, " Repent 
and be baptized." This was addressed to Jews who 
had been circumcised, and it reveals the difference 
between the grounds of baptism and circumcision. 
The Jew was circumcised because he was descended 
from Abraham ; but he could be baptized only 
when he repented of his sins and believed in Jesus 
Christ. He was circumcised on Abraham's faith ; 
but he could be baptized only on his own personal 
faith. Therefore, while circumcision in the Jewish 
church was given to all, baptism in the apostolic 
church was given only to believers, only to those 
who had personally accepted Christ as their Saviour, 
and had consecrated themselves to his service. 

Repentance and faith had to precede baptism. 
The baptism was not supposed to work any spiritual 
change in the subject ; it was given him only as a 
token that he had already experienced that spiritual 
change. As the uniform is put on a man not to 
make him a soldier, but because he has already 
become a soldier, so baptism was given not to 
make the man a Christian, but because it was be- 
lieved that he had already become a Christian. 

INFANT BAPTISM. 

It is a common error, however, to confound 
symbol with substance, the badge of a character 



I38 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

with the character itself. And thus in time men 
came to speak of baptism as being itself a regen- 
eration, and ere long the idea arose that baptism 
itself would make a man a Christian ; and further- 
more that no one could be saved without baptism. 
This led to the custom of giving baptism to infant 
children, especially to those who were sickly and 
who might die before becoming old enough to 
exercise faith for themselves. The doctrine of 
baptismal regeneration, the idea that baptism alone 
would work salvation and was also essential to sal- 
vation, it was this error and this alone which led to 
the practice of the baptism of unconscious infants. 

Finally, it was not merely baptism which was 
given to children too young to believe, for as early as 
the middle of the third century, we read in the 
works of Cyprian of the bringing of little babes 
to the Lord's Supper and the placing of the sacra- 
mental bread in their toothless mouths. This is still 
the usage of the Greek Church, and for centuries 
was the practice of the Church of Rome. It is, 
moreover, a strictly legal usage ; for if children 
may be given baptism without intelligent faith, why 
may they not be brought to the Lord's Supper 
also? Those who practise infant baptism to-day 
can give no logical reason for conferring it upon 
unconscious babes, and withholding from them the 
ordinance of the Lord's Supper. 

But it required some centuries for the usage of 
infant baptism to gain full currency. In the biog- 
raphies of many of the great leaders of the early 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 39 

church we find that, though their parents were 
Christians, they were not baptized in infancy. 
Among these are Basil, Chrysostom, Gregory Nazi- 
anzen, Ambrose, Augustine, and Ephrem of Edessa. 
As Dean Stanley remarks, in the early ages adult 
baptism was the rule and infant baptism the excep- 
tion. This of itself would show that infant baptism 
was not of apostolic appointment, but of later 
origin. The practice gained, however, continually 
wider acceptance till in the Middle Ages, together 
with many other dangerous errors, it had become 
the dominant usage. 

But the doctrine of salvation by baptism, and the 
resultant custom of the baptism of infants, were 
condemned by different bodies of Christians in 
various ages of the church. Among these were 
the Paulicians of Eastern Europe, with the Petro- 
brusians and Henricians in the West. A long 
catalogue could be given of bodies of Christians of 
various names, who in different parts of Europe 
and in different centuries, preached the Baptist 
doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Some of these 
are said to have held certain errors ; in some cases 
the charge may be true. But the errorist was at 
least an independent thinker, and the daring with 
which he dissented from some widely accepted truths 
showed itself also in his rejection of a dominant 
superstition. But it should be noted that we know 
little of these churches, except from the writings of 
their adversaries ; and it is well-nigh certain that 
many of the charges made against them had no 



140 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

basis except in the blind misrepresentations of 
bigoted opponents. 

If the records of church history were complete, 
it is not unlikely that it would appear that from the 
days of the apostles to the present time there has 
been a constant succession of churches, closely akin 
to the Baptists of the present day, congregations of 
godly men, strictly orthodox in belief, protesting 
against the doctrine of baptismal regeneration with 
its resultant error, the baptism of infants. New 
chapters of church history will soon be written. 
New fields, for the most part untrodden for ages, 
will soon be traversed. Already some gleanings 
have been secured ; and soon rich harvests will be 
gathered. Already much has been done to vindi- 
cate the so-called Anabaptists from one-sided charges 
growing out of ignorance and bigotry ; already 
something has been done to show that a succession 
of churches akin to Baptists, has existed since the 
days of Christ and his apostles. We do not, how- 
ever, rest our faith on any unbroken succession, but 
on the clear and authoritative commands of our 
Lord and his apostles in the New Testament. 

THE REFORMATION PROTEST. 

On the outbreak of the Reformation, this Baptist 
protest was sounded forth throughout the length 
and breadth of Europe. When Luther and others 
began to teach that men were justified by faith 
alone, they were everywhere confronted by the 
question, Why, then, should infants be baptized? 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES I4I 

Congregations of the opposers of infant baptism 
arose by scores and by hundreds. Their rapid 
multiplication has seemed to many historians an 
evidence that they were not entirely a new growth, 
but largely a part of an earlier ecclesiastical move- 
ment, hitherto concealed, but now under more 
favorable circumstances coming to the light. They 
were especially numerous in Switzerland, Bavaria, 
the Tyrol, Moravia, the Rhine country, and the 
Netherlands. Among their leaders were men not 
only of deep piety but also of great learning. 
They were nicknamed Anabaptists, or Rebaptizers, 
because they baptized on profession of faith those 
who had received so-called baptism in infancy. But 
they denied the charge of baptizing again, for they 
declared that infant baptism was no baptism at all. 
And the charge is false that they were responsible 
for the Miinster insurrection and other great politi- 
cal disorders. They were men of civil virtue as 
well as spiritual purity. By scores and by hun- 
dreds they were put to death for their evangelical 
beliefs, so that no other Christian body of to-day 
has given so many martyrs to the faith of a pure 
gospel as did they. Their congregations are still 
found in Holland and Germany, where from Menno, 
one of their early leaders, they are often called 
Mennonites. Some of their congregations are 
found in Pennsylvania and in other parts of this 
country. They differ from the Baptists in cer- 
tain points, but historically are closely related to 
them. 



142 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 
RISE OF MODERN BAPTISTS. 

We now come to the rise of the modern Baptist 
denomination. It will be remembered that the 
Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth went first from 
England to Holland. While there they came in 
contact with the Mennonites, who urged that as 
none but intelligent believers were admitted to the 
Lord's Supper, so none but intelligent believers 
should be baptized. Thomas Helwys, and certain 
others of the English company, felt compelled to 
adopt this view, and so were excluded from the 
ranks of their brethren. Helwys and his associates 
returned to England in 1611, and became what is 
generally deemed the first congregation of the 
modern Baptist denomination in Great Britain. 
Though Baptist doctrines were preached in England 
in earlier times, and there had been martyrs for 
them, it is not certain that regular congregations 
had been formed and maintained. 

A quarter of a century after Helwys' return, 
John Spilsbury and certain others of an Independent 
or Congregational church in London, discarded 
infant baptism, and they also formed a Baptist 
congregation. From these two, and perhaps other, 
sources, Baptist churches were formed in many 
parts of Great Britain. 

Among the early settlers in the American colo- 
nies were Baptists from England and Wales. All 
are familiar with the story of how Roger Williams, 
a Congregational minister in Salem, Mass., adopted 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 43 

Baptist doctrines, was banished from his home, and 
founded a colony on Baptist principles. The First 
Baptist Church in Providence claims to have been 
organized in 1639, but some think that the First 
Baptist Church at Newport was formed a year 
earlier. The dates of these beginnings are uncer- 
tain. It is sufficient, however, to say that Baptist 
churches were planted here in the early colonial 
days, and now are found throughout the whole land, 
and increasing at the rate of nearly three each day 
in the year. 

The principles of the Baptists have been widely 
adopted outside of their own ranks. The giving 
of baptism to believers only involves a ''converted 
church-membership," but infant baptism brings into 
the church those who are still unconverted, unless 
a spiritual change is always wrought in baptism. 
In the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Episco- 
palian churches it is not necessary to give evi- 
dence of conversion in order to admission to the 
Lord's Supper and full church-membership ; a cer- 
tificate of baptism is all that is essential. Less 
than a century ago persons baptized in infancy 
became full members in Presbyterian, Reformed, 
and Congregational churches also without any de- 
mand for evidence of a change of heart, and in 
Hodge's Theology, the great Princeton text-book, 
this is laid down as the correct procedure. But this 
left no difference between the church-member and 
the respectable outsider, except that the former had 
gone through the ceremony of baptism. All essen- 



144 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tial difference between the church and the world 
was obscured, and was even blotted out A gentle- 
man brought up in one of the State Churches of 
Europe, on being asked whether he was a Christian, 
responded indignantly, "Do I look like a Jew or a 
Turk?" He had been baptized and confirmed, 
and this completed his idea of being a Christian. 

But in the " great awakening," under the preach- 
ing of Edwards and Whitefield, a hundred and fifty 
years ago, when it was proclaimed that a man, 
even though a baptized church-member, must be 
converted, immediately the question arose why 
persons should be baptized and brought into the 
church before they were converted. The more 
earnest Christians, by thousands and thousands, 
adopted the Baptist idea of a converted church- 
membership, rejecting the baptism of infants ; and 
whole congregations, with their ministers, became 
Baptists. There was thus a marvelous increase in 
Baptist ranks as a result of this great movement, 
and preachers of to-day, like Mr. Moody, who 
strongly set forth the doctrine that salvation comes 
not through baptism and church-membership, but 
only through personal repentance and faith, are 
doing a vast deal to diffuse Baptist principles. 
Their converts practically become Baptists, even 
though they join other than Baptist churches. The 
idea that only converted persons should belong to 
the church was originally a distinctively Baptist 
tenet ; but now it has been adopted by nearly all 
evangelical Christians. Five Presbyterians out of 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES I45 

six, if asked regarding one who had been sprinkled 
in infancy but had not yet made a profession of 
faith, whether he belonged to the church, would 
answer No ! Although still, as we have already 
seen, some Presbyterians insist that all who have 
received infant baptism in their ranks are members 
of their churches. 

THE SALVATION OF INFANTS. 

There is another doctrine which, though set forth 
at first by Baptists alone, is now held by nearly or 
quite all evangelical Christians — the doctrine that 
all who die in infancy are saved. The baptism of 
infants was an outgrowth of the doctrine of bap- 
tismal regeneration, the idea that in baptism one is 
made a child of God, and that one cannot be saved 
without baptism. Infant baptism was based on the 
idea that all infants dying unbaptized would be lost. 
This dark and dreary superstition cast a gloom over 
the history of the church for centuries. There was 
mortal terror at the thought that an infant should 
die unbaptized. Sometimes in difficulty of birth 
the infant was sprinkled before birth, and sometimes, 
it will not be denied, the Caesarean operation was 
performed, that the babe might not die unbaptized. 
One dislikes to refer to matters of this sort, but 
history must be truthfully told. The fact is that 
the history of infant baptism is one of the most 
horrible chapters in the annals of the church. 
Abundant proofs could be given to justify that 
strong statement. Nor is this superstition wholly 



I46 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

extinct The Lutherans, in their Augsburg Con- 
fession, ''condemn the Anabaptists, who teach that 
infants may be saved without baptism." Not only 
Roman Catholic, but also Episcopalian parents, will 
feel uneasy till their babe has been ''christened " — 
that is, made a Christian (in their belief) ; and often 
a Presbyterian, when his child has died, will comfort 
himself greatly with the thought that it had been 
sprinkled, as if the dear little one's salvation had 
been made any more certain by the application of 
a few drops or an ocean of water. Many are the 
cases in which the Presbyterian or Methodist min- 
ister, and occasionally a Baptist minister, is asked 
to perform this service, and has been summoned 
at midnight by agonized parents to hasten to bap- 
tize their dying child. 

Infant baptism is not a beautiful ceremony ; it is 
rather the historical embodiment of a gross and 
revolting superstition. As the little babe is borne 
down the aisle in its holiday garb, the whole mean- 
ing of the ceremony is that unless certain drops of 
water were sprinkled on its brow that beautiful 
little creature would go down to the darkness of 
eternal despair. This is a superstition akin to that 
of "extreme unction" — the one the rite of baptism 
to unconscious babes, the other that of extreme unc- 
tion to unconscious men and women. Such supersti- 
tions naturally drive thoughtful men into infidelity. 

But in Baptist circles it was taught not only that 
baptism was not necessary to salvation, but that all 
who died in infancy are saved through the blood of 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES ^ 1 47 

Christ This doctrine was held long by Baptists 
only. Down to quite recent times, if a man said 
that the dying babe of a Jew or a Turk or a heathen 
was saved, it was known at once that he was a Bap- 
tist. But this, which was originally a distinctively 
Baptist tenet, now prevails to a greater or less de- 
gree in all evangelical circles. And corresponding 
to this difference of Baptist doctrine there has been 
an advance toward the Baptist usage of the bap- 
tism of believers only. If salvation is wrought in 
baptism, and without baptism there is no salvation, 
then it is reasonable that infants should be baptized, 
and without any outward evidence of conversion be 
admitted to full membership in the church. But 
renounce the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, 
and no ground is left for the baptism of infants. 
Should infants be baptized because they are natur- 
ally innocent ? Then the missionary should bap- 
tize all the babes in a heathen tribe, for of such 
also is the kingdom of heaven, they being as inno- 
cent naturally as the offspring of Christians. Is 
infant baptism proper as a dedication of children 
to God ? But what is this dedication ? It is simply 
a vow on the part of the parents that they will 
strive to lead the child to dedicate himself to God. 
Now, when a missionary goes to a heathen tribe, 
he in this sense dedicates that tribe to God. He 
promises to do in the case of the tribe what the 
parents promise to do in the case of the child ; but 
shall he therefore baptize the whole tribe at the 
outset ? 



I48 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The fact is that infant baptism, which had its 
historical origin in the doctrine of baptismal regen- 
eration, has no logical foundation but in that doc- 
trine. This is becoming more and more plain to 
all evangelical Christians, and the result is a grow- 
ing abandonment of the practice. Among the 
Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Episcopalians 
who still believe in baptismal regeneration, the bap- 
tism of infants is still observed with substantial uni- 
formity. But Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and 
Methodists, who have abandoned this doctrine, show 
a progressive abandonment of the usage. 

In a recent discourse, Rev. O. C. Sargent, of 
New Hampshire, put it very concisely, as follows : 

" Look at the signs of the times. Forty years 
ago few of the churches would immerse. To-day 
we do not know of any save the Roman, which is 
not willing in special cases. Infant baptism is fast 
dying out. The recent agitations and the frequent 
vain appeals of some of the old fathers for this 
practice show how slowly, yet how surely, it is pass- 
ing away. In i860 two thousand more infants 
were sprinkled than adults in the M. E. Church, 
while in 1870 thirteen thousand six hundred more 
adults than infants received the rite." Those who 
desire fuller figures should read the pamphlet on 
this subject by Prof. H. C. Vedder. Its statistics 
show that evangelical Christians incline more and 
more to give baptism only to believers, and that 
they are becoming Baptists in fact though not in 
name. 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 49 

DOCTRINE OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 

There is another doctrine which, though origi- 
nally a Baptist tenet, is now held outside Baptist 
circles, namely, the doctrine of religious freedom — 
the doctrine that the civil magistrate has no right- 
ful authority in purely religious matters. In the 
Hebrew nation, and in ancient Gentile govern- 
ments also, the Church and the State were one. 
The Jewish high priest was a civil functionary 
and the Roman emperor was pontifex maximus. 
The civil and ecclesiastical governments were iden- 
tical, or at least affiliated, and the civil magis- 
trate concerned himself about religious matters. 
In the Middle Ages the prevalence of the doctrine 
of baptismal regeneration, and the consequent prac- 
tically universal baptism of infants, made every per- 
son a church-member as well as a citizen. Thus 
Church and State again became identical, or at 
least conterminous, and the civil magistrate con- 
cerned himself with religious as well as secular 
interests. But the Baptist doctrine that one be- 
came a true Christian and a rightful member of 
the church only when he personally made a profes- 
sion of faith, left a vast number, indeed a great 
majority, of citizens outside the church, and there 
was a division between the ecclesiastical body and 
the civil community. The church became what it 
was in the apostles' day, a private society, a group 
of persons apart from the main body of citizens, a 
body called out from others, professing certain ex- 



I50 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

perimental truths, and devoted to their mainte- 
nance and propagation, and thus Church and State 
were divorced and each was remanded to its own 
sphere. 

Again, in the days when there was a full ad- 
herence to the doctrine of baptismal regenera- 
tion and of direct spiritual efficacy of ecclesiastical 
ceremonies, it was logical for the civil power to at- 
tempt by physical force to make men Christians. 
If baptizing a person would change his spiritual 
nature and his relations to God, all that was neces- 
sary to make a nation a Christian nation was to 
compel its members to be baptized and to observe 
the other ecclesiastical rites. If salvation came 
through outward ceremonies, the observance of 
which could be compelled by force, it was possible 
for the civil power to compel men to become Chris- 
tians. It could not only lead them to the water of 
life, but by thumbscrew and fagot could make them 
drink. 

Thus Charlemagne and other Christian conquer- 
ors compelled vanquished barbarians to go down 
into the water by tens of thousands to be baptized. 
And such compulsion seemed a solemn duty to 
those who believe that the failure to be baptized 
left the soul to be lost. If baptism could make 
one a Christian, the colonel in our late war was 
right who gave orders for a detail of men to be 
baptized. But the Baptist doctrine, that a man 
could become a Christian only by the voluntary 
and free action of his own spiritual nature, made 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES I 5 I 

religion a matter which could be settled only be- 
tween the man and his God, thus leaving nothing 
to be done by the civil magistrate, who could con- 
trol only the man's outward actions but could not 
reach his heart. A moment's thought will show 
that there is no ground whatever for saying that 
the only reason why the Baptists did not strive to 
extend their doctrines by force, as did others, was 
that they had no power so to do. It was a part of 
their fundamental belief that external force was 
utterly ineffectual to make men Christians. Others 
might abstain from persecution because their pity 
was stronger than their religious zeal ; but Bap- 
tists were restrained from it by logical deductions, 
namely, because they held that becoming a Chris- 
tian was an act of the Spirit which outward force 
could not compel. So they always taught that the 
civil power should take no cognizance of religious 
beliefs or purely religious practices of men, whether 
orthodox or heretic, Turk or heathen, but that these 
should be left solely to the judgment of God. 

Some other Christians have been very candid in 
recognizing that it was the Baptists who first preached 
the great doctrine of religious freedom. But it has 
not always been perceived that this doctrine was a 
logical outgrowth of the fundamental Baptist prin- 
ciple of a converted church-membership, and that 
church ceremonies are to be used only when men 
have already become Christians. The divorce be- 
tween Church and State was not merely a lucky 
thought of astute Baptist philosophers ; nor was it 



152 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

because they were in themselves better, kinder, 
and wiser than others ; but it was the logical out- 
come of distinctive Baptist principles. The Baptists 
preceded others in declaring the true relations of 
the civil and ecclesiastical bodies, not because they 
were superior to other Christians in their under- 
standing of civil principles, but because they held 
an ecclesiastical tenet which was correct where others 
were in error. The condemnation of the use of 
force in religion was originally a Baptist peculiar- 
ity. Down to a comparatively late date, if a man 
said that the civil magistrate should not interfere 
in strictly religious matters it was known thereby 
that he was a Baptist. But this doctrine has now 
extended to all churches in our own land, and it 
is rapidly becoming the doctrine of all Christian 
countries. Baptists have had in this respect a noble 
mission, and right nobly have they borne its bur- 
dens and discharged its obligations. 

THE DOCTRINE OF IMMERSION. 

Thus far nothing has been said of baptism or im- 
mersion. In a given society the question, What 
shall be the initiation ceremony ? is not so impor- 
tant as the question, Who shall be initiated ? And 
so the point insisted on by Baptists is not so much 
that immersion is the only baptism, as that only 
believers should be baptized. But the erroneous 
doctrine of baptismal regeneration which led to 
the baptism of infants gave rise to another super- 
stitious practice, namely, the substitution of pour- 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES I 53 

ing and sprinkling for baptism. The controversy 
on this subject first appears in the letter of Cyprian 
to Magnus, about the year 250. There were cer- 
tain persons who had been converted in sickness 
when they could not be immersed, so water was 
poured upon them as they lay upon their beds. 
But there was a refusal to recognize this as valid 
baptism, and the question was referred to Cyprian, 
who was one of the leaders in the church. After 
discussing the matter, he gives it as his view that 
in a case of strict necessity pouring or sprinkling is 
sufficient ; but he freely admits that his mind is not 
clear on the subject. His words are : " So far as 
my poor ability comprehended! the matter," and 
"So far as in me lies, I have shown what I think." 
That these expressions are not used in mock mod- 
esty is shown in the fact that he declares that he 
does not wish to influence the action of others in 
such cases, and he also suggests that should these 
converts recover they may be immersed, that is, 
baptized. 

Now this letter shows beyond dispute that the 
ordinary act of baptism in that early day was im- 
mersion. The question whether immersion could 
be dispensed with in extraordinary cases shows that 
in ordinary cases it was always used. In the whole 
discussion it is assumed that when a convert can be 
baptized, baptism is of course to be administered. 
No one in that day proposed to employ pouring or 
sprinkling except when baptism or immersion was 
impossible. And this letter proves, with equal 



154 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

clearness, that immersion was the only act of bap- 
tism practised by the apostles. Had they ever used 
pouring or sprinkling, even in a single case, Cyprian, 
who lived so soon after them, would of course have 
known it, and of course would never have admitted 
that there was the least question as to the propriety 
of such a use. That he never cites the apostles in 
support of his position, that he gives it merely as 
his opinion that pouring or sprinkling may be used 
in extraordinary cases, shows not only that in his 
time neither was used in ordinary cases, but also 
that the apostles had never used them in any case. 
That the baptism of the apostolic church was 
immersion is the testimony of scholars of all de- 
nominations. Martin Luther declares immersion 
to have been the primitive act of baptism. John 
Calvin says: "It is certain that immersion was 
observed by the ancient church." John Wesley 
says that it was "the custom of the first church." 
To the same effect are the utterances of later 
scholars of all Christian bodies, Roman Catholic, 
Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian. Says 
the late Dean Stanley: "There can be no question 
that the original form of baptism was complete 
immersion." Says the well-known historian, Dr. 
Philip Schaff : " Immersion and not sprinkling was 
unquestionably the original, normal form." Whole 
columns could be filled with similar quotations 
from the ablest scholars ; and be it noted that not 
a single writer of the rank of these named rejects 
these statements. To deny that immersion was the 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES I 55 

primitive act of baptism is really the wildest ab- 
surdity. If scholarship can prove anything, it 
proves all that Baptists claim ; on no other point of 
church history or Scripture exegesis is the scholar- 
ship of the world so nearly united. 

But how then came pouring and sprinkling to 
be used? It is not difficult to answer this question. 
It was because there had arisen in the church this 
superstitious idea that water baptism was necessary 
to salvation. When, therefore, a man was con- 
verted on a dying bed or in prison, when baptism 
was out of the question, pouring or sprinkling was 
resorted to as the nearest possible approach to the 
normal act of baptism. These were not considered 
regular baptisms, but were by some considered 
allowable substitutes when the prescribed act was 
out of the question. Pouring and sprinkling were 
at first used only in cases of necessity. But their 
superior convenience led to their being employed 
more and more, till in the course of ages they in 
Western Europe supplanted baptism almost entirely. 
In the Greek Church, however, immersion is still 
the act of baptism. It continued the ordinary bap- 
tism of the Church of Rome for thirteen hundred 
years. It was the practice in England down to the 
reign of Elizabeth. The Anglican prayer-book still 
directs that the priest, naming the child, " shall dip 
it in the water discreetly and warily" ; adding, how- 
ever, that if the parents "shall certify that the child 
is weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it." No 
" priest" of the Church of England has any right to 



I56 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

this day to sprinkle or pour water upon a babe, ex- 
cept the parents certify to its delicate health ; it would 
seem as if the great majority of children in that church 
are in very feeble physical condition. The rubric 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States of America directs that the minister "shall 
dip it in the water discreetly, or shall pour water 
upon it," not positively prescribing immersion, but 
giving it the preference of a prior mention. The 
late Dr. Ewer, of New York, always baptized 
the babes ; he would not practise pouring or 
sprinkling. The same is true of other clergymen 
of the Episcopal Church who are advocating a re- 
turn at least to the proper act of baptism. It is 
not too much to say that in a quarter of a century 
baptisteries in all Protestant churches will be by no 
means uncommon. These rules or permissions in 
churches which have abandoned the use of immer- 
sion, are historical reminiscences of the primitive 
practices. 

Those churches in Switzerland, Germany, and 
Holland which have been mentioned as coming out 
in condemnation of the baptism of infants generally 
continued the usage of pouring and sprinkling. 
But when Baptist churches were organized in Eng- 
land and America, they took the position that not 
only were believers the only proper subjects of 
baptism, but that a burial in water was its only true 
act. Therefore, the reason why Baptists practise 
nothing but immersion is this : they do not believe 
that water baptism is essential to salvation. Ac- 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES I 57 

cepting the testimony of all scholarship that immer- 
sion was the baptism of the apostolic church, and 
prescribed by Christ, they administer this when it 
is possible ; but when, as in case of sickness, this 
is out of the question, they let the convert die 
without water baptism. So far from " making too 
much of baptism," as is often charged upon them, 
no Christians, except the Quakers, who reject all 
water baptism, make so little of it as they. So far 
from making baptism necessary to salvation, they 
make salvation necessary to baptism. The as- 
sertion that Baptists believe that baptism is nec- 
essary to salvation is a declaration as far as 
possible from the truth. It is a statement born 
either of unpardonable ignorance, or unchristian 
malice. It ought to be known that Baptists hold 
that if the providence of God makes it impossible, 
as in the case of the thief on the cross, or of many 
on sick-beds, to render obedience, the command is 
not binding in such a case. The case is just the 
opposite. The very reason why they never resort 
to sprinkling, which can always be administered, 
but practise only baptism, which is occasionally out 
of the question, is that they hold that baptism is 
not essential to salvation, and that a true convert's 
soul will not be imperiled if he is allowed to die 
without having received water baptism. 

Pouring and sprinkling would never have been 
thought of but for the idea that a man's soul was 
imperiled if he were suffered to die without some- 
thing in the shape of baptism. Baptists condemn 



158 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

the use of pouring and sprinkling as having been 
based on the superstitious idea that something 
which at least somewhat resembled baptism was 
necessary to salvation. If they believed that water 
baptism would make one a Christian, they would 
baptize infants as well as believers. If they be- 
lieved that a dying man's soul would be lost unless 
he received something in the nature of baptism, 
they could use pouring and sprinkling as well as 
immersion. But, holding clearly and firmly that 
salvation depends only on intelligent faith and not 
on some baptismal ceremony, they claim that intel- 
ligent believers are the only proper subjects of 
baptism, and that the burial in water, the original 
ceremony, is its only proper act. And Baptists 
refuse to practise pouring and sprinkling for bap- 
tism, because they also hold that these are not a 
fulfillment of Christ's command. John Calvin says 
that "the very word baptize signifies to immerse." 
Martin Luther declares the same. The latest stand- 
ard Greek lexicons, those of Sophocles, Wilke, Cre- 
mer, and Liddell and Scott (later editions), define 
baptism as meaning immersion, and they recognize 
no other meaning. He who would go back of the 
lexicons and judge for himself, will find in Conant's 
" Meaning and Use of Baptism " a citation of every 
case in which the word is used by ancient writers, 
and he will see that in each case the idea of sub- 
mersion is involved. The Septuagint, the Greek 
version of the Old Testament current in Jesus' 
day, says that Naaman, the Syrian, went down into 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES I 59 

the Jordan and dipped, baptized (Gr. ebaptisaio) 
himself seven times. This means that he dipped 
or immersed himself; and when the New Testa- 
ment says that John was baptizing it means that he 
was immersing; 

TESTIMONY REGARDING BOTH ORDINANCES. 

The doctrine and practice of the Baptists with 
reference to the two Christian ordinances have been 
abundantly justified and upheld by the candid 
testimony of scholarly theologians of other de- 
nominations. From the great mass of these weighty 
admissions and endorsements the following are a few 
specimens, those relating to baptism coming first : 

To baptize signifies to plunge, as is granted by all the 
world. — Bossuet, Roman Catholic. 

It does not appear from Scripture that even one infant 
was ever baptized. — Keenan, li Doctrinal Catechism" Ro- 
man Catholic. 

In the primitive church, baptism was a total immersion 
or burial as it were. — Bechman, Lutheran. 

The Baptist position is incontrovertible from the Protes- 
tant standpoint, since they have the clear Bible text for 
baptism, and church tradition decides neither for nor 
against. — Dr. Dollinger, Old Catholic. 

Baptize undoubtedly signifies immersion. No proof can 
be found that it signifies anything else in the New Testa- 
ment, and in the most ancient Christian literature. — Prof. 
Harnacky Lutheran. 

All attempts to make out infant baptism from the Old 
Testament fail. It is totally opposed to the spirit of the 
apostolic age, and to the fundamental principles of the New 
Testament. — Prof. Lange, Lutheran. 



l6o CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The change from immersion to sprinkling has set aside 
the larger part of the apostolic language regarding baptism, 
and has altered the very meaning of the word. — Dean 
Stanley, Episcopalian. 

This passage (Rom. 6 : 3, 4) cannot be understood un- 
less it is borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by 
immersion. — Conybeare and How son, Episcopalians. 

Among all the persons that are recorded as baptized by 
the apostles, there is no express mention of any infants. — 
Dr. Wall, Episcopalian. 

"Buried with him," alluding to the ancient manner of 
baptizing by immersion. — John Wesley, Methodist. 

To be baptized into Christ is to receive the doctrine of 
Christ crucified, and to receive baptism as proof of the 
genuineness of that faith. — Adam Clarke, Methodist. 

The very word baptize, however, signifies to immerse, 
and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the an- 
cient church. — Calvin, Presbyterian. 

Respecting the form of baptism, therefore, . . . the im- 
partial historian is compelled by exegesis and history sub- 
stantially to yield the point to the Baptists, as is done, in 
fact, ... by most German scholars. — Philip Schaff, Pres- 
byterian. 

Scripture knows nothing of the baptism of infants. — Dr. 
Hanna, Presbyterian. 

Here follow a few out of many available strong 
Pedobaptist endorsements of the Baptist principle 
and practice of restricting the Lord's Supper to the 
actually baptized : 

Among all the absurdities that ever were held, none ever 
maintained that any person should partake of the commun- 
ion before he was baptized. — Dr. Wall, Episcopalian. 

If I believed with the Baptists that none are baptized 
but those who are immersed on profession of faith, then I 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES l6l 

should with them refuse to commune with any others. — Dr. 
John Hall, Presbyterian. 

It is evident that, according to our views of baptism, we 
can admit them to our communion ; but with their views 
of baptism, it is equally evident they can never reciprocate 
the courtesy. And the charge of close communion is no 
more applicable to the Baptists than to us. — Dr. Hibbard, 
Methodist. 

Open communion is an absurdity when it means commun- 
ion with the unbaptized. I would not for a moment con- 
sider a proposition to admit an unbaptized person to the 
communion, and can I ask a Baptist so to stultify himself 
and ignore his own doctrine as to ask me to commune with 
him while he believes I am unbaptized ? Let us have 
unity, indeed, but not at the expense of principle, and let 
us not ask the Baptist to ignore or be inconsistent with his 
own doctrine. Neither let us make an outcry at his close 
communion, which is but faithfulness to principle, until 
we are prepared to be open communists ourselves, from 
which stupidity may we be forever preserved. — American 
Presbyterian Quarterly. 

Did we believe that only believers who have been im- 
mersed are baptized, and that only baptized persons have a 
right to the Lord's table, we should believe and practise 
strict communion, and we should almost consider it an in- 
sult to be required to give it up without a change of views 
on the subject of baptism. . . We, as Pedobaptists, are 
close communionists, and we hope we shall never cease to be 
such. . . The only legitimate subjects of controversy be- 
tween us and the Baptists are the subjects and mode of 
baptism. — Congregational Journal. 

FIGURATIVE ALLUSIONS. 

Jesus' baptism of sorrow was not a mere sprin- 
kling ; it was a submersion in the tide of suffering. 

L 



1 62 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

When some good man prays that all may be " bap- 
tized" with the Holy Ghost, it is not a mere sprin- 
kling that he desires, but an inundation of the blessed 
divine influence. When some one writing of the 
great war says that the land was " baptized in blood," 
he means not that it was merely sprinkled, but that 
it was submerged, as it were, beneath the tide of 
carnage. Though baptism is sometimes spoken of 
as coming through an outpouring, the idea of sub- 
mersion is still involved, as when one is buried by 
the caving in of a bank upon him or buried be- 
neath the falling snow. Baptism, then, always 
means immersion. Immersion is not merely a 
"mode" of baptism — it is baptism itself. To 
speak of baptism by sprinkling is like talking of 
dipping by sprinkling. Pouring or sprinkling is 
not baptism at all ; it is merely something which 
has been substituted for baptism. Pouring or 
sprinkling cannot properly be called baptism, ex- 
cept on the principle by which the name of an ob- 
ject is sometimes given to that which is put in its 
place. Pouring or sprinkling is not baptism, and 
so is not a fulfillment of Christ's command. The 
command to be baptized is a command to be im- 
mersed, and this is another reason why Baptists do 
not practise pouring or sprinkling, but only immer- 
sion. 

In a revival in the winter of 1863-64, as stated 
by Rev. Dr. Norman Fox, in one of the regiments 
of the Sixth Corps, a young sergeant who had 
been converted was told by the chaplain that he 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 63 

ought to be baptized. "Very well," said he, "if 
that is 'reg'lations.' " It was a soldier's answer. 
A soldier is trained to obey orders, and if Christ, 
his captain, commanded him to be immersed, the 
boy was ready to obey. And so Baptists adhere 
to the practice of immersion, for they believe that 
that is Scripture "reg'lations." It is objected by 
some that this is mere literalism ; that, granting 
that baptism is strictly immersion, and that immer- 
sion alone was practised in the earliest times, yet the 
idea of baptism is that of washing or purification, 
and as washing is attained by pouring or sprin- 
kling as well as by immersion, these are in substance 
a compliance with the command, and in spirit are 
a fulfillment of the ordinance. But can baptism 
be regarded as merely a purification? Jesus' bap- 
tism of sorrow was not a purification, for the Holy 
One needed no such. Many of the Fathers re- 
ferred the baptism of fire to the destruction of the 
wicked, which they viewed, not as a purification, 
but a submersion in waves of fire. Should we 
grant that the original idea in baptism was a puri- 
fication, it still remains that the apostles in their 
mention of baptism into the death of Christ at- 
tribute to baptism the symbolism of death to sin 
and a rising again to a new life through faith in 
Jesus, who was buried and rose again. The apos- 
tolic immersion, then, was a symbol of burial and 
resurrection. Referring to this fact, Luther says : 
"On this account I could wish that such as are 
baptized should be immersed in the water. It 



164 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

would be beautiful to have so full and perfect a 
sign of so perfect and full a thing ; as also without 
doubt it was instituted by Christ." Pouring and 
sprinkling cannot be regarded as meeting even the 
spirit and idea of the baptismal command, for they 
contain no symbol of the death and resurrection 
of our Lord, which idea is paramount in apostolic 
baptism. The act of washing contains nothing 
whatever of distinctively Christian symbolism, for 
it is found in the Jewish "Ritual," nay, in purely 
heathen ceremonies. Only a burial in water can 
be regarded as true Christian baptism, for it alone 
sets forth the death and resurrection of our Lord, 
which is the central fact of the Christian system. 
Not only the letter, then, but also the spirit of the 
baptismal command requires that there should be 
an immersion. 

It is urged that baptism is only a form. Yes, 
and so a flag is only a form, merely a piece of 
bunting, and yet men will die for it. The United 
States flag is a symbol of the Union, since it has a 
star for every State. When the great conflict arose 
in 1 861, it was seen in a moment that if disunion 
came the flag would have to be changed. The con- 
test therefore took the shape as to whether the old 
flag should be retained. And when the "Star 
Spangled Banner" was sung, when the Stars and 
Stripes were unfurled to the breeze, it meant that 
there was to be no change in that flag. 

That great four years' war was a war over a flag, 
for to save the flag meant to save the Union. If the 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 65 

flag had been the French Tri-color, or the Swiss 
Cross, which could have been retained after the 
Nation was divided, it would have been different. 
But the fact that if disunion came the flag would 
have to be changed, made the soldier " fight for 
the flag" and "stand by the flag" with ten-fold 
earnestness. 'Perhaps it would not be too much to 
say that the flag saved the nation. Perhaps it would 
not have been possible to save the Union had it 
not been for the flag, which put the whole question 
before the minds of the people in so vivid and 
striking a way that they could not help seeing the 
meaning of the great struggle. The flag, though 
a "mere form," had a marvelous power, for it told 
the whole story of loyalty, of patriotism, and of 
heroic consecration. 

And so the baptismal burial in water, though a 
mere ceremony, sets forth so strikingly the great 
central truth of Christianity that eternal life comes 
through the death and resurrection of Christ, that 
Baptists in preserving that symbol are doing a rich 
service to the church and the world. 

There is another point to which reference has 
been made already and regarding which testimony 
has been offered, but to which perhaps an addi- 
tional word should be given, a matter on which the 
Baptists have been subjected to much ignorant and 
most unjust criticism, namely what is known as 
close communion. On this subject, let it first be 
noticed, as already taught by liberal quotations, 
that all Christians, Presbyterians and Methodists as 



1 66 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

well as Baptists, agree that baptism is a prerequi- 
site to the communion ; that no person should be 
invited to the communion table until he has been 
baptized. When therefore the question arises, 
Who shall be invited to the communion table? it 
must first be determined, Who has been baptized? 
If a man has been baptized who has merely been 
sprinkled in unconscious infancy, then he may be 
invited to the communion. But Baptists find in 
Scripture no baptism except a burial in water on 
profession of faith. And so they can invite only 
immersed believers. Unable to see that infant 
sprinkling is baptism, they cannot invite to the 
communion those who have been baptized in in- 
fancy, or have received merely pouring or sprin- 
kling for baptism. Baptists differ from Presbyte- 
rians and Methodists not on the question, who shall 
be invited to the communion? but simply as to, 
who have been baptized ? If Baptists are wrong in 
saying that infant sprinkling is not baptism, then 
they are wrong in not inviting Presbyterians and 
Methodists to the communion. But if they have a 
right to their opinion that Presbyterians and Meth- 
odists have not been baptized, they are right in not 
inviting them to the Lord's Supper. 

It is true that Spurgeon, under certain restric- 
tions, and English Baptists generally, so invite 
Presbyterians and others to the communion. But 
on what ground ? On a ground which Presbyte- 
rians and all others condemn, the ground that 
water baptism is not in any way a prerequisite to 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 6/ 

the communion ; on the ground that it is proper to 
invite a man who has never received any water 
baptism whatever, neither immersion nor pouring 
nor sprinkling. Now, when Presbyterians them- 
selves condemn this principle of the English Bap- 
tists, how absurd in them to censure American 
Baptists for not adopting it. For Presbyterians to 
say that none but baptized persons should be in- 
vited to the communion, and then to blame the 
Baptists for not inviting them, is to say that Bap- 
tists have no right to consider them unbaptized ; 
that Baptists have no right to the opinion that 
there is no baptism but immersion on profession of 
faith — in other words, that Baptists have no right 
to be Baptists. But the Baptists answer, "When 
you show us that baptism in infancy or a mere 
sprinkling is true baptism, then we will regard you 
as baptized, and will invite you to the communion ; 
but so long as we find in Scripture no baptism but 
immersion on profession of faith, which you have 
not received, we must regard you as unbaptized, 
and, on your own doctrine that baptism must pre- 
cede the Lord's Supper, we are unable to invite 
you." 

GROWTH OF BAPTISTS. 

As to the growth of the Baptist denomination, it 
may be remarked that in 1750, a century after its 
rise in this country, there were only some sixty 
churches, with not many more than five thousand 
members. Then came the great revival under Ed- 



1 68 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

wards and Whitefield, which, as has been re- 
marked, was preached strictly on Baptist lines, and 
in 1768, nearly eighteen years later, there were re- 
ported one hundred and thirty-seven churches, an 
increase of more than one hundred and twenty-five 
per cent. Twenty-two years after that, in 1790, 
there were reported eight hundred and seventy-two 
churches, with about sixty-five thousand members. 
Twenty-two years later, in 1 8 1 2, were reported two 
thousand six hundred and thirty-three churches, 
with two hundred and four thousand one hundred 
and eighty-five members. In 1848 the Baptists of 
the United States numbered about seven hundred 
and fifty thousand. They now number over three 
millions, while in Great Britain and on the conti- 
nent of Europe and in mission fields, are about 
three-quarters of a million more. 

A .hundred years ago the ratio of members of 
Baptist churches to the entire population of the 
United States was one to sixty-three ; now the ra- 
tio is one to twenty-one — that is to say, the Bap- 
tists have increased faster than the population, and 
this too without the help of immigration. Nearly 
all immigrants from Europe have been Roman 
Catholics or Lutherans. The Episcopalians and 
Presbyterians in this country have been strength- 
ened by immigration from Great Britain, but not so 
the Baptists. The following important facts have 
been thus tersely stated by a writer already 
quoted: "From i860 to 1880 the increase in 
membership of four of our leading denominations 



HISTORIC BAPTIST PRINCIPLES 1 69 

was this : Congregationalists, forty-two per cent. ; 
Presbyterians, fifty-five per cent. ; Methodist Epis- 
copal, eighty-two per cent, while the Baptist de- 
nomination increased ninety-nine per cent." 

On this subject it may be further stated that in 
the United States Baptists numbered in 1800, one 
hundred thousand; in 1850, six hundred and 
eighty-six thousand eight hundred and seven ; in 
1870, one million four hundred and ten thousand 
four hundred and ninety-three; 1880, two million 
two hundred and ninety-six thousand three hundred 
and twenty-seven; in 1891, three million one hun- 
dred and sixty-four thousand two hundred and 
twenty-seven. 1 

1 From the " Baptist Year-Book " for 1891, the subjoined valua- 
ble and interesting statistics concerning the progress of the de- 
nomination during the past year have been compiled : 

"There are in the United States 1,382 Associations, which 
comprise 34,780 churches, with an aggregate membership of 
3,164,227, an increase over last year of 29 Associations, 1,192 
churches and 94,180 members. The total number of baptisms 
reported for the year was 140,058, and the deaths 27,277. The 
total amount reported as contributed for home expenses is $7, 186,- 
532 ; for missions, $1,045,371 ; for education, $374,039 ; and for 
miscellaneous religious and benevolent objects, $2,609,637, mak- 
ing a total of $11,215,579. The total value of church property 
reported is $61,646,377. There are 22,703 ordained ministers, 
an increase of 1,528. There are 18,555 Sunday-schools, with 
131,889 officers and teachers, and 1,280,663 scholars, an increase 
of 859 schools and 78,967 scholars." 

It is deeply interesting to put after the figures just given a par- 
tial summary of statistics for 1896 : Associations, 1,567 ; 
churches, 40,658 ; total membership, 3,824,038 ; value of church 
property, $84,039,959. Our numbers, doubtless, will be over four 
millions before the century shall close. 



I70 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Baptists have had and still have a high and holy 
mission. God has greatly honored our imperfect 
services both in the home and foreign fields. He 
graciously condescends to work with us and to 
permit us to work with him, in wonderful ways. 
May we evermore be true to our high calling, loyal 
to our Lord, and beneficent to the whole world. 



:t 



VII 

PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY POSSIBLE 
ELIMINATION 

ON few subjects is there more reasonless writing 
than on that of church unity. It is often 
difficult to determine what those who write and speak 
freely on this subject really mean. But it is not at all 
difficult to know what is meant by Christian union. 
We are all quite ready to admit that it consists in 
a common spirit, a common aim, a common hope, 
and a common method. Anything that partakes 
of the spirit of bitterness, selfishness, and mere 
denominational success, is opposed to this admir- 
able aim. 

But church unity must in some way involve the 
idea of the merging of all churches into one church. 
When we analyze the speeches and articles of many 
of the advocates of church unity, we find as a rule 
that they mean to ask all other churches to join the 
particular church to which the writer or speaker 
belongs. They ask that each church should sur- 
render its distinctive views and unite in some 
common body, at the expense of cherished con- 

1 Delivered March 24, 1890, at Lenox Lyceum, New York, at 
the first Interdenominational Social Union of the Congregational 
Club, and the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Unions of New 
York. 

171 



172 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

victions and intelligent interpretations of the word 
of God. They ask that some churches should 
believe in so-called infant baptism, while these 
churches firmly believe that this rite has no warrant 
either in Holy Scripture or in common sense. 
They ask that certain other churches should adopt 
a Presbyterian or an Episcopal form of church 
government, when these churches believe only in 
the Congregational form of government; or they 
ask those who believe in Presbyterial or Prelatical 
forms to adopt a Congregational form. Really, it 
seems difficult to give some of the advocates of 
church unity credit for both sincerity and intelli- 
gence. 

I certainly am not one of those who mourn over 
what some persons call "the scandal of a divided 
Christendom." In a real sense the church is not 
divided to-day. There are various divisions of 
Christians, but even in their organic divisions the 
essential unity of the faith is illustrated. Those 
who are most vigorously crying out for unity awaken 
often the suspicion that they are asking for that 
which they know they themselves conspicuously 
lack. There may be organic without essential 
union. There are churches in this city at this mo- 
ment, bearing the same denominational name, recit- 
ing the same denominational creeds, and are yet 
wider apart in spirit and method than churches which 
bear different denominational names. Churches 
which are under one denominational control are 
illustrating some of the characteristics of Romanism, 



PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY ELIMINATION 1 73 

while others are manifesting marked features of 
rationalism. There is more essential unity among 
us than we ourselves at all times appreciate. Let 
some crisis arise when Protestantism must utter its 
voice, and all our churches will stand together as 
one undivided church of Christ. 

What great gain would come to the cause of God 
as a whole if all churches were united into one 
great church? Would such a union give real unity 
in faith and work? No intelligent man can so 
affirm. Churches belonging to the same body soon 
form affiliations within themselves on the basis of 
creedal interpretations, or because of social affini- 
ties. There is comparatively little real unity to-day 
in the Roman Church. Protestant denominations 
have not in recent years been so bitter against one 
another as have different wings within the Roman 
Church. These differences have marked this church 
throughout its history ; it has occasionally persecu- 
ted even its own members. The burning jealousies 
and personal rivalries shut up within this church 
occasionally burst forth, to the scandal of the church 
catholic itself and of the Christian name. The dif- 
ferences between the Jesuits and the Jansenists are 
known to all readers of church history and general 
literature ; the same remark applies in part to other 
orders within this same church. The bitterness in 
the former case was almost entirely on the side of 
the Jesuits ; in those controversies they were true to 
their general character. The Jansenists were vari- 
ously and always cruelly persecuted. 



174 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Our Protestant brethren sometimes glorify Ro- 
manism at the expense of Protestantism, because 
it is believed that the former is united while the 
latter is divided. We claim, however, that there 
is as much essential unity in the Protestant denomi- 
nations as there is between the different wings in 
the Roman Church. These organizations are prac- 
tically different denominations acting in conjunction 
within the Roman Church. The jealousies and 
contentions which have at times marked the Fran- 
ciscans, Augustinians, and other societies, brother- 
hoods, and still other divisions in this church, have 
helped Protestantism, and in many other ways are 
among the historical causes of great religious move- 
ments. Let us in our desire for still greater union 
neither deny nor disparage the union which now 
exists, and for which we now in many ways lift up 
our hearts in thanksgiving to Jesus Christ, the great 
Head of the one glorious church. The differences 
in the Presbyterian Church in America at this mo- 
ment are known to all men ; they are more bitter 
than are any of the relations of the Presbyterian 
Church to any other Protestant body. The differ- 
ences between various wings of the Episcopal Church 
are also well known ; indeed, they caused, a few 
years ago, a schism in that body. 

Would such unity, as some desire, secure sound- 
ness of doctrines ? Who can intelligently so affirm ? 
The bodies possessing what are often called the 
"long and strong creeds," are the very bodies whose 
various parties differ most widely on points of doc- 



PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY ELIMINATION 1 75 

trines. Thus, as we have seen, Rationalism and 
Romanism can be found side by side under the 
same ecclesiastical name, and repeating the same 
ecclesiastical creeds. Creeds are not conservative 
of sound doctrines; indeed, the historic creeds have 
often been divisive rather than unitive. The Nicene 
Creed did not secure purity of doctrine ; for a time 
Arianismwas stimulated by the excitements growing 
out of the council at Nicaea. It would be easy to 
enlarge upon the historical illustrations of this 
statement. The differences between denominations, 
so long as a kindly and Christian spirit is preserved, 
are no reproach to the church of Christ. Absolute 
unity of opinion can be found only among dead 
men ; living men must think for themselves. We 
cannot pin the faith of to-day to the creeds of 
fallible men who died hundreds of years ago. It 
is no reproach to Christian men that they differ 
kindly in interpretations of Scripture and in forms 
of worship. 

Would the church unity, for which some plead, 
give aggressiveness to missionary work? Surely he 
is a reckless man who would so affirm. The unity 
of Christ may be made the more perfect in our 
apparent divisions ; and it is certain that our dif- 
ferent missionary organizations have been able to 
accomplish far more in foreign mission work, labor- 
ing along their separate lines, than all could have 
accomplished as one organic body. During this 
century these organizations have put one hundred 
and forty-six foreign missionary societies into the 



176 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

field. They have translated the Scriptures into two 
hundred and eighty languages or dialects ; they 
have reached nine-tenths of the entire race with 
the word of God ; they have divided their forces 
so that forty societies are working in India, thirty- 
three in China, and thirty-four in Africa. No 
reasonable man would claim that one-tenth of this 
force would now be at work in foreign lands if all 
these denominations were under the direction of 
one organic body. Why will men talk about a 
divided Christendom? Why will they shout them- 
selves hoarse over a formal and mechanical church 
unity? We have true union just in proportion as 
we have the spirit of Christ. Every man who has 
been washed in the precious blood of the Son of 
God is our blood relation ; it matters not whether 
he is black or white, red or yellow, rich or poor ; 
whether he is a member of this church or that, in 
a very real sense he is our brother. 

Would such church unity lead to increased loyalty 
to the word and to the Son of God? This is a 
most practical question. When the church was 
practically a unit over the whole world it was sunk 
in the greatest intellectual ignorance and moral 
corruption. The true life of Christ in those days 
was found outside the so-called church. Loyalty 
to Jesus Christ is to be maintained at all hazards. 
It is admitted that our present divisions sometimes 
cause a waste of money and effort in missionary 
operations ; that in many Western towns and vil- 
lages several churches are struggling to live where 



PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY ELIMINATION YJJ 

one could meet the religious wants of all the peo- 
ple. Evils of this character are readily admitted. 
But they are incidental to the weakness and ambi- 
tion of unsanctified human nature. It is possible to 
suggest some principles according to which union 
between such struggling bodies might be formed, 
and also to state some creedal basis for such union. 

In the meantime, let us put the name of Jesus 
Christ above all mere human names. The oneness 
for which our blessed Lord prayed is not neces- 
sarily realized in the church unity so often com- 
mended. His prayer referred to essential rather 
than to organic union. It was not a prayer for 
absolute unity of opinion in matters of faith and 
practice. It was not a prayer that men should be 
silent when error is taught ; but it was rather a 
prayer for a union in love, and its standard is the 
relations between the persons of the blessed Trinity. 
That relation suggests union in spirit with diversity 
of existences. This is as near as churches can ever 
come to the unity existing in the Godhead. It is 
unity in love, and such unity the churches of Jesus 
Christ now, to a great degree, manifest. 

Organic union among the various churches is 
certainly not feasible at present. The recent arti- 
cles in the " Independent" by bishops of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church clearly show that 
these bishops are not prepared to recognize 
churches of other denominations as churches of 
Christ. Their letters are candid and courteous ; 
but as regards such recognition, they are narrow 



I78 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

and unfraternal. These writers insist upon the 
historic episcopate as an institution which must be 
recognized by the ministry of all other churches. 
They will not surrender their convictions regarding 
the alleged divine appointment of the historic 
episcopate. Other churches will not so dishonor 
themselves as to admit that they are not complete 
and competent churches of Jesus Christ, although 
they recognize the historic episcopate as historically 
untrue and doctrinally useless. Doctrinally, the 
Protestant Episcopal Church is broad and liberal ; 
but in matters of traditional order it is surprisingly 
narrow and illiberal. Its narrowness in the one 
case is quite as remarkable as is its broadness in the 
other. It is inexplicable that mere questions of 
polity should be so highly esteemed, while ques- 
tions of doctrine are practically so lightly regarded. 
But even though there may not be organic there 
may be essential union between churches of differ- 
ent denominations. 

On the whole subject of union several proposi- 
tions may be laid down, which, if accepted, would 
greatly help in the solution of perplexing practical 
problems in Christian work. 

PRACTICAL PROPOSITIONS. 

I. The famous dictum of Chillingworth is to be 
emphasized — the Bible, and the Bible only, the 
religion of Protestants. Recently I was asked to 
give my endorsement to the statement that the 
Bible is to be regarded as the ultimate authority in 



PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY ELIMINATION 1 79 

all questions of faith and practice ; that statement 
is not satisfactory. The Bible ought to be consid- 
ered of greater authority in all questions of faith 
and practice than that statement implies. This 
truth is to be insisted upon first and last and 
always. Many, however, who are nominally Prot- 
estants, hesitate to accept the Bible except as a 
very vague authority in religious belief. They give 
tradition and " churchianity " an authority which 
the word of God nowhere recognizes ; and an 
authority which, to some degree, displaces and 
quite disparages the word of God as the only 
standard of faith. When the Bible speaks we may 
not be silent ; when the Bible is silent we may not 
speak. Here and here alone is sufficient authority 
for our guidance in life, our hope in death, our joy 
in eternity. More and more must the word of God 
be exalted to the supreme place in the church of 
God, as the true guide alike in faith and practice. 
All recent discussions tend more and more to 
weaken the authority of creeds made by men, and 
more and more to exalt the simple and sublime 
authority of this divine book. By this book we are 
to live ; by it we are to triumph here, and by it we 
are to be judged hereafter. This proposition must 
be fundamental in any intelligent and enduring 
organic union of churches. 

2. Another proposition is this : No denomination 
has a right to a separate existence unless it repre- 
sents and teaches some important doctrine or doc- 
trines of the word of God which other denomina- 



l80 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tions either oppose, reject, or inadequately present. 
Surely that is a reasonable proposition. No de- 
nomination has a right to exist as such, if it has no 
distinctive truth to teach to the world ; it has no 
right to exist merely to gratify the personal vanity of 
its supporters, or to furnish a vocation for its preach- 
ers ; and no right to exist merely to maintain a 
tradition, however honorable and venerable. The 
question must be asked, What truth has this organ- 
ization to give us which other bodies of Christians 
do not teach ? That is a fair question ; and to it 
each denomination, with the word of God as its 
authority, ought to give an intelligent reply. In 
the British Government there are officers and 
offices which exist simply as souvenirs of an earlier 
time and of a different civilization. The necessity 
for these officers has entirely passed away ; but 
they still remain, as strange examples of a con- 
servatism which remembers everything old and 
which learns nothing new. It ought not to be so 
in the church of Christ. The church ought not to 
care especially whether any practice is old or new ; 
but whether, according to God's word, it is true 
and necessary. The true apostolic church is that 
church which best illustrates the spirit and teach- 
ings of the apostles, that church whose ordinances 
and worship most fully harmonize with the teach- 
ings and example of the apostles. True apostol- 
icity is not in an imaginary succession, but in actual 
possession. 

Why waste the Lord's money in maintaining a 



PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY ELIMINATION 151 

separate organization for home and foreign mission 
work, unless the particular body has a truth to 
teach which other churches are not presenting to 
the world? It is fair to ask regarding some 
churches this question : What truth of God's word 
would perish from the earth if these churches should 
cease to exist as separate bodies ? In regard to 
some organizations it must be said that the echo of 
the questioner's voice will be the only answer to 
his question. Why then should separate organiza- 
tions be maintained? Why should not the advo- 
cates of organic Christian union give their atten- 
tion at once to this matter ? Why might not some 
of them who talk much of union immediately illus- 
trate their preaching by merging themselves and 
their churches into other Christian bodies which 
teach, in all essential respects, the doctrines which 
their own church teaches ? If we honestly apply 
this rule we shall certainly eliminate several de- 
nominations. It would not be difficult, but it 
might not be gracious, to name the bodies to 
which these principles might apply, and which 
would be thus eliminated. The question is, Are 
these principles sound, and if so, ought they not to 
be applied in the interest of true economy in the 
conduct of the Lord's work, and also in the inter- 
est of a wholesome Christian union ? 

3. Akin to this last proposition is another : 
Organic union ought first to be effected among all 
the wings and branches of each denomination itself. 
When that has been accomplished, that denomina- 



1 82 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tion can consistently and effectively urge organic 
union among the various bodies differing much 
more widely in name, in faith, and in forms of wor- 
ship. Let us begin with the Baptist denomination. 
There are Regular Baptists and many sorts of 
irregular Baptists. Irregular Baptists are divided 
into many different bodies of greater or less im- 
portance. Dr. Carroll, in his admirable volume, 
"The Religious Forces of the United States," gives 
us a very large number of subdivisions in the Bap- 
tist body. A more careful classification than Dr. 
Carroll makes would considerably reduce the 
number ; but admitting that fact, we know that 
the number is still needlessly large. Similar re- 
marks will apply to his classification of the Meth- 
odist and the Presbyterian churches and to still 
other bodies. But in their cases also the existing 
subdivisions are needlessly large, and should be 
promptly and greatly reduced. 

Regular Baptists feel that they ought, if possible, 
to secure union among some of these divisions and 
subdivisions, although in the case of some, such 
union is probably impossible. They ought to 
begin near home, and later they could consistently 
urge bodies differing more widely to come into a 
closer union. Regular Baptists express this desire 
more for the sake of those outside their special 
lines than for their own sake ; they increase every 
year more than the entire number of several of 
these divisions and subdivisions. Baptists feel that 
without doing violence to any one's convictions of 



PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY ELIMINATION 1 83 

the teachings of God's word, it would be a great 
gain to have a Pan-Baptist union organization in 
which all Baptists could unite for more effective 
work in the conversion of the world at home and 
abroad. 

Similar remarks will apply to the Presbyterian 
Church. The distinctions between Old School and 
New School have, at least nominally, passed away. 
Traces, however, of former divisions still remain ; 
but there are still many branches of the one Pres- 
byterian Church. If one were to speak of the Re- 
formed (Dutch) Church in this connection the argu- 
ment would be greatly strengthened. It would 
seem as if all these bodies which are Presbyterian 
in government, and which differ so little in faith 
and practice, might be brought into one great Pan- 
Presbyterian Church. There are also various bodies 
of Christians bearing the name Methodist. We 
have Episcopal Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, 
Calvinistic Methodists, and Protestant Methodists, 
and many other kinds of Methodists ; and some of 
these divisions are also subdivided again and again. 
Let us have a great Pan-Methodist organization, 
and then Methodism shall be able more effectively 
to make its appeal to other bodies not bearing its 
distinctive name. Congregationalists also have dif- 
ferent wings. The line of cleavage may not be 
clearly marked by a separate terminology, but it is 
marked by differences in faith and practice which 
cannot well be formulated into differences in 
nomenclature. These differences, however, are 



I84 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

real ; they are manifesting themselves in theological 
schools, in home missions, and especially in the 
Board for foreign mission work. 

When we come to speak of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church we find many illustrations of the 
necessity which there is of such a denominational 
unity as is here advocated. There are in this body 
very wide differences in the essential spirit of differ- 
ent churches. There is the High Church, at times 
almost similar to the Roman, and there is the Low 
Church and the Broad Church, differing very 
widely. There are Reformed Episcopalians, and, 
in the opinion of these at least, Un-Reformed 
Episcopalians. There ought to be a Pan-Episcopal 
Church — which might, perhaps, include other 
bodies so far as the term Episcopal is concerned 
— before the most effective form of appeal can be 
made for organic unity to those outside the Protes- 
tant Episcopal fold. We trust the effort toward a 
more permanent unity will be begun along all these 
denominational lines. 

4. Another proposition it may be permitted to 
suggest : No form of organic union is to be advo- 
cated which gives to any church the right to appro- 
priate for itself such ecclesiastical titles, or to em- 
ploy such historical assumptions, as practically to 
unchurch all other bodies of Christians. No titles 
should be used by any church except such as are 
clearly given in the word of God, and they are to 
be adopted in the sense in which they are used, 
according to the conclusions of the best scholar- 



PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY ELIMINATION 1 85 

ship, in the word of God. The assumptions which 
are here condemned are great barriers to Christian 
union. They sometimes simply excite laughter ; 
they occasionally justify wholesome indignation. 
No officials in any church are justified in appro- 
priating to themselves titles implying appointment 
by authority over all Christians in a town, city, or 
State. In the United States there cannot be a 
bishop of New York, or of any other city. No 
man in this country can rightly use such a title. 

Several denominations use such titles with quali- 
fying terms ; but two bodies, the Roman Catholic 
and the Episcopalian, use them without any quali- 
fication. Such assumptions are as unfraternal as 
they are unscriptural. No man has a right to use 
a title which has never been bestowed by those 
whose bestowment alone could justify him in its 
use. This matter is extremely important. This 
misuse of titles is a daily violation of a true Chris- 
tian courtesy. No union among denominations, 
which is simply absorption of one into another, 
except in the case of denominations which have no 
distinctive truth to teach, as we have already sug- 
gested, is to be commended. The question of 
legal and personal rights immediately obtrudes 
itself at these points. The lion said to the lamb, 
"Let us be one and lie down together." The 
union was speedily effected, but when the attitude 
of recumbency was secured, the relative positions 
of lion and lamb it is easy to understand. Such 
a relationship as applied to churches is not Chris- 



1 86 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tian union ; it is simply absorption of one body 
into another without real advantage to the cause 
of Christ as a whole. There must be fraternal 
consideration, there must be regard for the rights 
of all, in any attempt to unite the different denomi- 
nations into one great whole. The assumptions 
which we here condemn are a great barrier to 
Christian union, and are subversive of all true 
Christian fraternity. 

ESSENTIAL UNION POSSIBLE. 

This writer has not advocated organic union, but 
he rejoices in all forms of co-operation, and in some 
forms of federation. But it is quite certain that if 
there is to be any form of organic union, it must 
begin at the baptistery. Every denomination in 
Protestant Christendom, and in the entire range of 
the Roman and Greek Churches, can agree upon 
baptism, as taught by our Lord and his apostles. 
The Greek Church, numbering from eighty to 
ninety millions of adherents, has ever been a stout 
witness on behalf of baptism. The Roman Church 
joyfully accepts it, and all the Protestant churches 
join hands with these two great bodies. On no 
substitute for baptism, such as pouring or sprin- 
kling, can all the denominations agree. The writer 
is not now arguing a point ; he is simply stating an 
incontrovertible fact. Do men really want organic 
Christian union ? Are they in earnest when they 
proclaim this desire ? Are they willing to follow 
Christ into the waters of baptism ? Are they will- 



PARTIAL UNIFICATION BY ELIMINATION 1 87 

ing to join hands with their brethren in all cen- 
turies and in all climes? Here is the opportunity; 
here is the truly apostolic and catholic ordinance. 
If they will but follow apostolic injunction and ex- 
ample, then all can say, "We are buried with him 
by baptism into death." And then there may be, 
if it is desired, organic union without doing vio- 
lence to the convictions of any and in acknowl- 
edged harmony with the word of God in its recog- 
nized interpretations. 

Organic union of all the denominations, as mat- 
ters now are, is perhaps not possible ; but it is 
easy thus to state the manner in which it is clearly 
possible. It would be easy to quote the most 
learned authorities of many faiths and countries 
and centuries in favor of this position. On but 
few points is the scholarship of the world so nearly 
a unit as it is in regard to the meaning of the 
word " baptism," and as to the practice of the 
apostles and the early church. It would be easy 
to fill pages with the names of learned authorities 
on all these points ; and the simple-minded disciple 
of the Lord Jesus, with no guide but the New 
Testament, comes to the same conclusion as that 
reached by the most learned scholars. For thir- 
teen hundred years immersion was the prevailing 
practice of the church of Christ. The names of" 
Calvin, Luther, Melanchthon, Neander, Wesley, 
Geikie, ScharT, Dean Stanley, Canon Liddon, and 
a score more, can be given as authority for the 
statement that baptism is immersion, and that this 



1 88 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

was the practice of the apostolic church, and of 
the churches for centuries later. Why cannot we 
all go back to this primitive, apostolic, and catholic 
ordinance ? Why not ? Will any one give a good 
reason for the refusal to obey Christ and the apos- 
tles ? Is organic union desired ? Why not, then, 
begin where the apostles began ? But most of all, 
let us preserve the spirit of love, and we shall have 
essential union, which is far better than merely a 
cold, formal, organic union. 

It will be remembered that it is said that when 
Ptolemy built the Pharos he desired to make his 
own name immortal, but the architect deemed it 
unfair that the king's name should endure while his 
own should perish. He, therefore, cut the king's 
name in plaster, but deep in the imperishable gran- 
ite he carved his own name — Sostratus. The waves 
dashing against the Pharos washed off the plaster. 
The king's name disappeared, but the name of 
Sostratus was seen in imperishable letters. The 
name of Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Metho- 
dist, or Baptist, however much we love it, and how- 
ever loyal we are to it now, is one day to give 
place to that name which is above every name. 
Not our name, but the name of our Lord and 
Saviour, our Prophet, Priest, and King, will abide, 
and amid the light of earth and the increasing 
glory of eternity, one name shall alone be read — 
Jesus Christ. 



VIII 
GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 1 

WE meet to-day in circumstances of universal 
interest. The echoes of the great centen- 
nial celebration are still sounding in our ears, and 
the tender memories and glowing hopes which it 
suggested are still thrilling our hearts. We have 
seen America honored throughout the world ; we 
have seen her crowned and enthroned as queen in 
the Congress of Nations. With glad hearts we 
have entered the second century of our constitu- 
tional history as a nation ; and we soon shall pass 
as a part of Christendom into the twentieth century 
of the Christian era. Already we hear the bugle 
notes of faith and hope announcing its approach. 
We hail with gratitude and joy its advent ; it will 
be, we venture to prophesy, a century of simpler 
faith, of purer character, of warmer zeal, and of 
fuller consecration than the nineteenth, now going 
into the shadows of the past. 

1 Delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston, before the American 
Baptist Home Mission Society, May 19, 1889. On the occasion 
of these anniversary meetings, the announcement of Mr. John D. 
Rockefeller's first gift to the University of Chicago was made. 
This gift made this now great university possible ; and it stimu- 
lated others to give to Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and 
other colleges, arousing their ambition and partly enabling them 
to become universities in the true meaning of the term. 

189 



190 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The world is not growing worse. The church 
was never so intelligent, so benevolent, and so con- 
secrated as at this hour. Jesus Christ is King; his 
pierced hand is on the helm of the church as he 
guides her through the storms of the centuries. 
Already the crimson and gold of a brighter day 
color the eastern sky. Under Christ's safe leader- 
ship we are swinging forward into the certain trials, 
but also into the more certain triumphs of this 
opening century. 

We meet to-day under the influence of Rhode 
Island and Roger Williams, the true apostle of true 
soul-liberty. Amid the grand figures of the early 
jdays of our national life and liberty let this one — 
in some respects the grandest of them all — shine 
forth in symmetrical proportions and in undimmed 
lustre. With all their acknowledged virtues, many 
of the founders of our great nation had no concep- 
tion of true religious liberty ; they fled from perse- 
cution to be guilty of persecution ; they opposed 
intolerance when they were its victims ; they favored 
intolerance when they could be the oppressors and 
Baptists were the victims. Amid the glories of 
these centennial memories let the wisdom, the 
manliness, the bravery, the justness, and the godli- 
ness of Roger Williams be fully recognized. In 
the foremost ranks of the true apostles of the 
highest soul-liberty were these brave Baptists, 
''shouting the battle cry of freedom" in its noblest 
sense. 

We meet in the State of Massachusetts, so rich 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 191 

in memorials of the heroic struggles and sublime 
achievements of the founders of the Republic. 
With no capital but granite rocks and icebergs and 
faith in Almighty God, these men and women laid 
the foundations of this mighty nation. They have 
left their impress on America and on the world ; 
and with all their faults, their names will be held in 
everlasting remembrance. 

We meet also in the noble and historic city of 
Boston. Here the cradle of liberty was rocked by 
loving hands inspired to their task by praying hearts. 
From this cradle went forth heroes and heroines, 
saints and martyrs, whose names to-day are the 
nation's heritage and the world's inspiration. This 
city is sacred in Baptist history. In this city of 
Boston, John Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and James 
Crandall were cast into prison for the sin of worship- 
ing God, preaching the gospel, and baptizing be- 
lievers. Here Clarke stood stripped at the whipping 
post, but some humane person, without his consent 
and contrary to his judgment, redeemed him with 
money from his bloody tormentors. Endicott said 
to him "you have denied infant baptism and de- 
serve death." Here Holmes, who would not consent 
to be released, saying that he " durst not accept of 
deliverance in such a way," was whipped with thirty 
stripes, September 6, 165 1. Bancroft affirms that 
Holmes was whipped "unmercifully"; and Governor 
Jenks says "that for many days, if not some weeks, 
he could take no rest but upon his knees and elbows, 
not being able to suffer any part of his body to 



192 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 



touch the bed whereon he lay." The blood of the 
martyrs is evermore the seed of the church. 

What do we see in Boston to-day ? Our Baptist 
brethren are in the front rank in numbers among 
all the denominations in this city. God be thanked 
for his marvelous kindness to his beloved people in 
this strong city ! We meet also in Tremont Temple. 
Tender associations gather about the name. From 
this place no uncertain sound has ever gone out 
regarding either the flag of our country or the 
cross of our Christ. Here patriotism and piety 
have sweetly blended ; here liberty and loyalty have 
been married ; here men have taught that whether 
a man was black or white, red or yellow, rich or 
poor, 

A man' s a man for a' that 

The object of this discourse is to ask and to seek 
to answer the question : How can we increase the 
efficiency, how develop the power of the Baptist 
denomination as a witness for truth, as a force for 
God and man in the world.? 

We recognize at the outset how great our growth 
has been, how wonderful our power now is, and 
how vast our future achievements will be. When 
Washington was inaugurated the population of the 
thirteen States which comprised the Union was 
three million seven hundred and fifty thousand. 
At that time the whole number of Baptists was 
fifty thousand ; of this number, then, as now, the 
larger part was in the South. To-day the number 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 1 93 

of States has increased to forty- two, and the popu- 
lation is from sixty to sixty-five millions. What is 
the record regarding our churches? The whole 
number is thirty-two thousand nine hundred ; of 
ministers the number is twenty-one thousand four 
hundred and twenty ; and of church-members 
almost three millions. A century ago we were but 
one in seventy-five ; now we are one in twenty-two 
of the population. 1 Well may we thank God and 
take courage. 

We love the Baptist denomination. We gave 
her the fervor of youth ; we give her now the riper 
knowledge and the heartier conviction of mature 
years. She is radiant in her queenly beauty. Never 
did knight of heroic days show more of chivalry 
toward the queen of his heart, than do the knights 
of the Cross among us toward the body whose name 
we bear. To us the Baptist denomination is beau- 
tiful. Her martyr's crown becomes her lofty brow ; 
her prison-soiled, flame-charred, and blood-stained 
robes are lustrous and glorious. Her past is tri- 
umphant ; her future is resplendent. Here and 
now, as she is loyal to her Lord, we give her the 
love and loyalty of our true hearts. 

In answering the question proposed in this dis- 
cussion it would be easy to say that we need more 
of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, more 

1 At the present date (1897) tne number of States is 45, and the 
population is between 70 and 75,000,000. Our numbers are 
(1896) : churches, 40,658 ; ministers, 27,257 ; membership, 
3,824,038 ; about I in every 19 of the population. 

N 



194 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

loyalty to Christ and to his truth, more piety in 
heart and perseverance in work, more faith in God, 
and more faithfulness in duty. All these things, 
and many more of the same kind we certainly 
need. But so do all the denominations of Chris- 
tians equally with us ; we certainly are not willing 
to admit that they surpass us in any of these 
respects. We believe that we have stood with sin- 
gular loyalty to God's word all through the cen- 
turies. This discussion, therefore, rules out at the 
outset all those needs of ours which are common 
to all the other bodies of Christians. The question 
is, What do we as a denomination, with our dis- 
tinctive views of God's word and our unique ob- 
servances of the ordinances of God's house, need 
to our greater efficiency in the world ? If our views 
are worth holding, they are worth propagating ; if 
we are called to influence one man, we should 
strive to influence all men ; if we are chosen wit- 
nesses for Christ, as I believe we are, of truths 
either denied or but partially taught by others, we 
must utter our testimony in Jerusalem, in Judea, 
in Samaria, and even unto the uttermost parts of 
the earth. 

HIGHER EDUCATIONAL STANDARD. 

That we may attain greater efficiency, we need 
a higher standard of education, both for the clergy 
and the laity. 

The cry for an educated ministry has gone out ; 
it has been heard to a considerable degree. No 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 1 95 

man can surpass me in attaching importance to the 
divine element in the call and preparation of men 
for the ministry. Until this call is heard no man 
ought to enter upon the sacred duty. No human 
learning can be a substitute for the tuition of the 
Holy Ghost ; no college can ever fit men for this 
high vocation except they daily study in the school 
of Christ, which evermore must be the noblest 
university. But God uniformly gives special train- 
ing to the men and women for whom he has special 
work. No amount of piety will ever sanctify stu- 
pidity. We have an exalted appreciation of the 
work of many of our fathers and brethren who did 
not have the advantages of the schools ; but it 
should ever be borne in mind that their success was 
not because of, but in spite of, these disadvantages. 
Given the advantages, with their unique endow- 
ments, and what mighty men of valor they would 
have been ! It is sometimes said that men like 
Mr. Moody are mighty without the learning of the 
schools ; but Mr. Moody is learned along his spe- 
cial and narrow lines, and his power is in proportion 
to his learning. I say often to young men : " If you 
are quite sure that you have the natural gifts of 
Spurgeon or Moody or Horace Greeley, then go 
into ministerial and editorial work as did they ; but 
many of your friends doubt whether on that basis 
you would be justified in neglecting all possible 
preparation." 

There will be men who, from their years and 
their poverty, cannot take a full course of ministerial 



I96 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

training ; in their case a shorter course is justifiable. 
But if a man who has the opportunity to take the 
full course, and who from laziness or a low estimate 
of the dignity and difficulty of the Lord's work will 
not take it, then that man proves that he is not a 
fit candidate for the ministry of Jesus Christ. The 
men who did not have the advantages of learning — 
in the technical sense — and who have nevertheless 
done such good work, were men who would have 
availed themselves of these advantages if that had 
been possible. This is no time for ''shortcuts" 
into the ministry ; never were the demands more 
numerous ; never was full preparation more neces- 
sary ; never were kindergarten theological semi- 
naries for ministers at home or missionaries abroad 
so little needed as now. A year more than the 
fullest course in each case were better than an hour 
less. 

The cry for an educated ministry has been so 
largely heard that now in a great many cases we 
do not fear the result of a comparison in this re- 
spect with the ablest men of any of the various 
denominations. But still there is room for improve- 
ment. Too many enter the ministry who have 
never had a course of training in any theological 
seminary ; and quite too many are in our theological 
seminaries who have not pursued a college course, 
and unfortunately the number in some seminaries 
is not decreasing. We need more men who are 
scholars in the exact sense of that term ; men who 
are in a process of training to become professors, 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 1 97 

commentators, and litterateurs. We have too few 
who are authors. Thank God, the number of au- 
thors is increasing. During the past year Baptists 
have produced volumes on theology and philosophy, 
and Bible commentaries which are an honor to the 
denomination, to the country, and to Christianity 

We need greater numbers of thoroughly educa- 
ted laymen. Our membership is over three millions. 
This represents a population of nine to ten millions 
who are members or adherents of Baptist churches. 
This is about one-sixth of the total population. 
Are we furnishing one-sixth of the editors, of the 
lawyers, of the doctors, and of the ministers ? Are 
we furnishing one-sixth of the judges, of the sena- 
tors, and of the congressmen? Are we furnishing 
one-sixth of the teachers in public schools and 
colleges ? Are we sending one-sixth of the young 
ladies in schools and colleges for women from Bap- 
tist families? We owe it to the world and to 
Christ to furnish this proportion ; are we doing it? 
Is this proportion of the students in our academies 
Baptists or from Baptist families ? We cannot too 
highly commend the value of academic instruction. 
Many men cannot go through college. But such 
men may get in our best academies a scholarly trend 
which shall influence them all their life. Are we 
furnishing one-sixth of the great scholars of America ? 
We owe it to ourselves and to our country and to our 
Lord to give this proportion. We never can have 
great scholars unless we can devise some wise sys- 
tem of graduate instruction. 



I98 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

In connection with the great university of 
which some of us dream, this may be possible. 
This hope is in advance of all existing institutions. 
Strictly speaking, there is not to-day a university 
in America. Yale is not ; Harvard is not ; Prince- 
ton is not; Johns Hopkins is not, though it comes 
nearer to the realization of this high ideal than any 
other American institution of to-day. There are 
great hopes in the hearts of a few large-minded 
and far-seeing Baptists, that the day will soon dawn 
when under our auspices will be the greatest uni- 
versity on the American continent. Baptists have 
a splendid opportunity; they may be the leaders 
in the higher education of this vast continent. 
Their history superbly qualifies them for such 
leadership. To-day the door of opportunity springs 
wide open to their leaders as they are marching 
forward under a high educational, patriotic, and 
religious impulse. It is earnestly hoped that soon 
munificent gifts will be made which will immor- 
talize their donor or donors, and which will lay 
the foundation of the first great university in our 
country. Baptists ought to be leaders in every 
great educational movement. They have scholars 
capable of planning and manning such an institu- 
tion. They have men of wealth who can lay its 
foundations broad and deep, and who will give 
their best wisdom to the erection of the contem- 
plated and superb structure. May God hasten the 
day for the realization of the hopes of some of his 
noblest and most consecrated sons and daughters ! 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 1 99 

APPROPRIATE RITUAL. 

We need a more stately, ornate, reverent, and 
scriptural form of public worship. The devotional 
element ought to be more fully emphasized. It is 
easy to see that some religious bodies which hitherto 
have had elaborate forms of public service are 
tending toward greater simplicity. It is equally 
easy to see that those which have been characterized 
by extreme simplicity are tending toward greater 
fullness and richness in their services. Both ten- 
dencies are full of hope ; both tendencies ought to 
have full liberty. There are Baptist churches which 
are so ritualistic as to prefer their old, barren, and, 
to many, unattractive services. These churches 
are ritualistic. Ritualism is the strict observance 
of prescribed forms in religion. The forms may 
be traditional in origin ; and they may be plain, 
barren, and even uncouth in character. The rit- 
ualism is in the strict observance of the prescribed 
form, not in the character of the form itself. No 
Roman or Anglican church is more rigid in its form 
of worship than are certain Baptist, Presbyterian, 
and other churches. 

Other Baptist churches have the right to resent 
this attempted lordship over their freedom in wor- 
shiping God. Who has a right to add to our 
Confession of Faith an article which insists on the 
infallibility and inspiration of certain Puritans in all 
matters of public worship ? They rigidly excluded 
the use of the Lord's Prayer in their services. 



200 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

They considered the chanting or the responsive 
reading of the Psalms as savoring of papacy or 
some other form of apostasy. We are surprised 
that any one should think that the honoring of 
God's word in public service should be considered 
as partaking of the abominations of the " Scarlet 
woman" ! If anything is clear from the word of 
God itself, it is that its responsive reading, or an- 
tiphonal chanting, was the manner in which some 
of its inspired writers used it in the public worship 
of God. We who desire deeper reverence in our 
services are quite willing that those who so prefer 
should cling to their barren forms, even though we 
may regret their ritualistic spirit. But we object to 
their endeavors to restrict the liberty of those who 
are freer than they from ritualism, those who desire 
to give variety, warmth, color, and scripturalness 
to the public worship of God. Why should these be 
charged with being innovators and " apists " ? Why 
should their efforts after a fuller participation on 
the part of all the people in the public worship, 
their desire for greater spirituality and scriptural- 
ness, be sneered at as dilettanteism? 

Vigor of invective these critics mistake for strength 
of argument ; bitterness of criticism they mistake 
for loyalty to truth. They conspicuously illustrate 
the very sin which they uncharitably charge upon 
others. In the name of what they claim to be 
Baptistic they would force upon us what is neither 
Baptistic nor scriptural. Is it Baptistic to make 
the example of certain Puritans instead of the New 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 201 

Testament the rule of our faith and practice ? 
What right have these men to place tradition be- 
fore Scripture? In the authority of God's word 
Baptists believe with all their hearts ; but to the 
teaching of an often narrow and bigoted tradition 
they attach no importance whatever. To the law 
and the testimony — this is our appeal. The real 
question is, what do the Scriptures enjoin, forbid, 
or permit as to public worship ? To ask any other 
question, to attempt to decide the question on any 
other basis, is unworthy of a Baptist. But the 
moment the question is asked these self-constituted 
censors of their brethren are condemned, for the 
New Testament is nearly silent on the question, 
and permits the largest liberty to the people of 
God. 

In the little that it does say it is at variance with 
the censors. Our Lord himself says, "After this 
manner, therefore, pray ye," but the censors say, 
"After this manner, therefore, pray ye not." And 
when they had sung a hymn (i. e., chanted a psalm) 
they went out ; but the censors say that chanting 
a psalm, or even reading it antiphonally, is ritualism 
of the most objectionable type. We may celebrate 
the birth of Washington, but not the birth of our 
Lord ; we may observe the anniversary of our coun- 
try's independence, but not the anniversary of our 
Lord's resurrection ; we may decorate with flowers 
the graves of our nation's dead, but not the house 
of God ; we may fill our houses with rugs from 
Daghestan, and pottery from Japan, and works of 



202 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

art and bric-a-brac from the four quarters of 
heaven, until they are ablaze with color and beauty, 
but we must worship God in barnlike structures 
devoid of beauty, and in a ceremony as funereal 
and austere as we can make it. 

Does anybody believe that we please God better 
by making his house and his worship repellent than 
by making both cheerful and attractive ? We re- 
pudiate this censorship. We assert our liberty ; 
we despise this traditionalism and ritualism. The 
man who insists on these forms handed down to us 
from Puritanic times is under the bondage of a piti- 
ful formalism. A Baptist church should refuse to 
enter into or to accept such bondage even for an 
hour. Shall we, as severely orthodox Baptists once 
did, eschew singing of any kind ? Shall we, as 
some Presbyterians still do, vehemently protest 
against organs as inventions of the devil ? Are our 
children ritualists and "apists" when in Sunday- 
schools they read the Bible responsively and recite 
in concert the Lord's Prayer? Where would these 
censors have us stop ? Some of us will continue 
to take the example of David, of prophets, of 
apostles, and of the Lord himself, rather than the 
traditions of the Puritans, as our authority in public 
worship. 

The best of everything belongs to God. He is 
a God of beauty " in earth and sky and sea." The 
flowers are his beautiful thoughts ; the mountains 
are his majestic thoughts ; and the stars are his 
brilliant thoughts. The temple of old was not too 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 203 

splendid to be his dwelling-place. And as God 
claims the best of eveiything in his worship, so 
Baptists have a right to the best of everything in 
rendering him that worship. It has been said that 
the chief difference between Roman Catholics and 
Protestant Episcopalians is that the former are 
"papists" and the latter are "apists." I neither 
accept nor contradict the remark, I simply quote 
it ; but I know that Baptists are neither the one 
nor the other. We are older than either. We 
talk not so much, of the early church as of the 
earliest church ; we go back to the First Baptist 
Church in Jerusalem. All that is grand in the 
songs of Christendom is ours ; all that is penitential 
in the historic Confessions, and all that is binding 
in the noblest professions is ours. We repudiate 
the idea that any body of Christians — and certainly 
one of the smallest and most sectarian of the sects 
— has a monopoly of the historic creeds and Con- 
fessions. The sublime Gloria Patri, the lofty Glo- 
ria in Excelsis y the grand Te Deum — these are ours. 
We have a noble share in the glorious heritage of 
the Christian centuries. Some of the grandest 
hymns are ours in the fullest sense ; and all the 
noblest songs of Christendom are ours to use and to 
enjoy. Let us claim our own ; let us take it wher- 
ever we find it. 

We repudiate the idea that Baptistic is in any 
sense synonymous with " booristic " — if I may coin 
a word. We must sadly confess that occasionally 
there seems to be such a suggestion ; and the 



204 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

saddest part of it is that there are otherwise intel- 
ligent Baptists who seem to admit and even to ac- 
cept such a relationship. Are we willing to admit 
that it is more Baptistic in country places to gossip 
on Sunday around the horse-shed or block than to 
come reverently at once into the house of God ? 
Are we willing to admit that it is more Baptistic to 
gaze about the house of God on entering than to 
spend a few moments in silent prayer, either kneel- 
ing or with bowed head ? Are we willing to admit 
that irreverence in manner is more Baptistic than 
reverence ? If so, then the time to repudiate what 
is Baptistic has come ; but we insist that all these 
nobler qualities are inseparable from what is truly 
Baptistic. If these self-constituted censors want 
boorishness, unfortunately it is not wanting. There 
are men among whom and places in which it is 
common enough ; but we emphatically deny that 
it is either Baptistic or scriptural. 

In this connection we may be permitted to say 
that greater care in the administration of the ordi- 
nance of baptism ought to be taken. This ordi- 
nance is beautiful in itself; it is also profoundly 
significant in its religious symbolism, and it ought 
to be made as beautiful as possible in its admin- 
istration. Often, unfortunately, it is administered 
so as to be unimpressive and occasionally distaste- 
ful. This ordinance was honored at our Lord's 
baptism by the audible or visible presence of each 
Person of the blessed Trinity : God the Father by 
an audible voice from heaven, God the Son in 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 205 

human form coming up out of the Jordan, and God 
the Spirit in the form of a dove. Who dares dis- 
honor what God hath so honored ? We dishonor 
the ordinance sometimes by making it the subject 
of frivolous remark, and oftener by its unimpressive 
observance. Do not call the effort to make it 
beautiful and reverent unworthy of our thought. 
Let the construction of the baptistery and all the 
accessories of the ordinance be tasteful, beautiful, 
and reverent. All that flowers, music, and rever- 
ent propriety can do in this respect ought to be 
done. Were the ordinance not divine in its origin 
and beautiful in its symbolism our frequent careless 
administration of it might have led to its general 
neglect. Other denominations are often forced to 
observe it, for the people will not be satisfied with 
human substitutes for this divinely appointed and 
inherently beautiful ordinance. Let us honor its 
divine appointment by its reverent observance. 

In line with these remarks is the importance of 
building beautiful houses of worship. Our beloved 
Home Mission Society has done much toward ele- 
vating and gratifying the taste of the people in this 
regard. Thank God, the day has gone by when 
one is almost sure that the worst-looking and most 
ill-located church in a town is a Baptist church. 
In many towns the reverse is now true, thanks to 
the plans sent out by this society, and to other 
similar influences. We bid farewell without a tear 
to the old drygoods box meeting-house. The best 
church in every town should be the Baptist church. 



206 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

God is the friend of beauty. There is no piety in 
ugliness. Without extra cost we may have houses 
which shall be models of architectural beauty and 
of church propriety. In the name of all that is 
beautiful, tasteful, aesthetic, and worshipful, let us 
have a general, radical, and universal reform in the 
old styles of Baptist ecclesiastical architecture. 
Indeed, this reform has already commenced. We 
give it glad welcome. Every church is the incar- 
nation of the religious thought of those who worship 
within its walls. Let our thought be simple, scrip- 
tural, divine ; and then let the structure in its ap- 
propriate architecture embody that thought to the 
glory of God and the advancement of his truth. 

FULLER CO-OPERATION. 

We need a greater degree of co-operation among 
Baptist churches in towns, cities, States, everywhere. 
We have often allowed independency to carry us 
to foolish extremes. We have been so fearful 
of compromising our independency that we have 
often compromised our common sense ; indeed, 
we have at times entirely dispensed with it. Not 
independence so much as interdependence is the 
need of our churches. We have the men now as 
part of our denominational force who could partly 
secure this co-operation. The secretaries of our 
State conventions, working with the district secre- 
taries, the missionary committees and the executive 
committees, could largely do this work. These 
secretaries ought to be familiar with the conditions 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 207 

of every part of the field under their direction. 
They might be in effect bishops in the modern 
though unscriptural sense of that word. We ought 
to exalt their office. They might do much toward 
getting churches for churchless pastors and pastors 
for pastorless churches ; they might do much 
toward reconciling differences in churches ; they 
might do much toward giving hope to despondent 
churches and in getting other fields of labor for 
men not competent to do the work in the field 
where they are located. 

The district secretaries and the missionaries of 
the Home Mission Society could do similar work 
in certain fields. We have not used as we might 
the forces at our command. It is pitiful that we 
have allowed so much power to be latent or to be 
operative only to hurt rather than to help. Here is 
a church in a large and growing town. For years it 
has been engaged in civil strife ; its members are 
tearing it to pieces. The work of years is going to 
decay ; some members go to no church ; others 
are drifting into churches of other denominations. 
One's heart aches to see how we lose ground in 
certain important fields. Our polity has in it ele- 
ments of the greatest strength ; it has been recently 
tested, and it has triumphed where it has had a fair 
opportunity, while churches with " long and strong 
creeds" and with highly organized machinery have 
been shaken to their foundations. But in order 
that our simple organization may be strong our 
people must be spiritual ; so long as we are loyal 



208 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

to Christ and his word we are loyal to all church 
obligations. When the higher loyalty ceases the 
lower loyalty becomes an impossibility. When 
we draw near to Christ we approach one another 
in loving fellowship and in loyal service. 

We believe that our simple Baptist polity can 
adapt itself to the ever-changing conditions of our 
advancing civilization. It has in it the fresh, vig- 
orous, and variant elements of the word of God in 
its adaptation to the multiplying needs of our 
modern times. Creeds made by men can be 
changed by men. We are capable of doing our 
thinking to-day as were ever churchmen of an 
earlier day. We are not anchored to the ceme- 
teries of past generations, but we must ever keep 
near to the command and the person of our Lord 
Jesus as King in Zion. There really is but one 
Baptist church in any given town or community. 
That church may for the convenience of its mem- 
bers meet in different places and under several 
names, but all its interests are harmonious ; no one 
organization desires to be built up at the expense 
of other organizations ; the interests of each are 
the interests of all. There is no contradiction 
between the idea of true independency and this 
noble spirit of interdependence When this large, 
this fraternal, this Christian spirit dominates each 
Baptist church then our churches as a whole will 
be clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and ter- 
rible in their opposition to evil as an army with 
banners. 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 209 

GREATER COMPREHENSIVENESS. 

We need greater comprehensiveness in our faith 
in relation to members of our churches and in the 
relation of churches to each other. I am not ready 
to believe that this is a peculiarly skeptical age. It 
certainly is not in the coarse sense in which unbelief 
was understood in the time of Paine and Voltaire. 
We are always disposed to depreciate the present. 
But as we look to the twentieth century, we become 
radiant with hope ; the pendulum is swinging back. 
Many men who have no faith in God and religion 
wish their children to be trained in godliness. 
Many conservative business men see the dangers to 
which atheism, socialism, and kindred " isms " lead. 
But it is a time of inquiry, of questioning — -perhaps 
of doubting. If only the doubt be honest we need 
not fear the result. Christianity challenges investi- 
gation. Each church must decide in each case 
according to the spirit and character of the man 
what course had better be pursued. Let the mantle 
of our church and denominational life be large 
enough to include those who differ from us at some 
points, if their spirit be Christlike and their ministry 
be fraternal. 

Here is a man who has adopted certain views 
which are said to be those of the so-called new 
school of theology. He is, therefore, open to fair 
criticism. But certain questions ought to be asked. 
Who is the brother? What is his spirit? What 
are the characteristics of his ministry? These and 



2IO CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

similar questions ought to be asked in deciding on 
our course of treatment. May he not have a mis- 
sion ? Perhaps he can reach men whom you and 
I could not touch. Perhaps he can save to Christ 
and to the denomination men and women who 
otherwise might drift from both. 

Here is a man who has views on faith healing or 
the second coming of Christ which many think un- 
scriptural. Let him hold them. We need to be 
represented in such circles. Such a man may 
gather about him those who otherwise would have 
no Baptist home. Our policy should be inclusive 
rather than exclusive. We already have lost too 
many good men who might still be with us had 
they been treated with greater consideration. Loy- 
alty to Christ does not require us to be unbrotherly 
toward brethren. Our denomination is large 
enough, strong enough, and free enough to include 
men who differ from the majority on comparatively 
unimportant side issues. We ought to have, and 
we must have, room within our ranks for men like 
noble brethren who could readily be named and 
who represent phases of Christian doctrine not held 
by our brethren generally. So far as they are 
loyal to Christ, useful in his service, and fraternal in 
their relations with their brethren, they can have, 
and they shall have, a warm welcome in our ranks. 
The narrow and exclusive policy ought to be sharply 
rebuked so often as its unwholesome spirit is mani- 
fested among us. 

Here is a man whose views on communion are 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 2 1 I 

somewhat lax. Men will differ among us on the 
communion and other questions of church order. 
We have ever been the honest, consistent, enthu- 
siastic advocates, of soul-liberty. For the assertion 
of this right we have suffered persecution even unto 
death in many lands. We must continue to mani- 
fest this spirit as truly toward brethren bearing the 
Baptist name as toward those outside of our ranks. 
The spirit of charity must have its constant illustra- 
tion and its due recognition in every rank both of 
the clergy and of the laity. 

PARTICIPATION IN GENERAL WORK. 

A larger participation in non-denominational re- 
ligious work and in general benevolence is an ele- 
ment in greater Baptist efficiency. We have often 
been too exclusive in our lines of work. We have 
sometimes said that we could not have a full 
recognition in non-denominational organizations. 
This has not been my experience. If w r e fail of 
recognition the fault is our own. Let us take our 
place and do our share of the work and the proper 
recognition will certainly come. We have too often 
waited to be recognized ; let us quietly take our 
position and give others their deserved recognition. 
We need not be afraid of our distinctive views ; 
they will often be best defended by our consistent 
and consecrated lives. The denomination that 
does the work will get the people. Our views may 
be stamped with the divine authority, but if they 
are not incarnated in great-hearted, Christ-loving, 



212 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

and soul-seeking men and women they will make 
but little headway in the world. Religion is now 
intensely practical. Not the orthodoxy of the 
creed, but the activity of the life is the element by 
which our Christianity is oftenest judged. Not the 
depth of our well, but the number of thirsty people 
whom we refresh — this is, after all, the practical 
test. We must be able to say of our denomina- 
tional life, as Christ said of himself and his religion, 
"come and see." Christianity will bear the test; 
our denominationalism must do the same. If it 
cannot, it will fail, and it ought to fail. 

We have done but little along these directly 
practical and humanitarian lines of Christian service. 
I know well that the gospel we preach reaches to 
the heart and life, and that Christ did not perform 
many miracles in feeding the hungry or in healing 
the sick. We are to preach Christ and him cruci- 
fied, but we must not forget that this is the broadest 
preaching conceivable ; it touches every interest of 
humanity. It has its relations to business, and to 
social and to political life as truly as to the distinc- 
tively religious life. We were at the first especially 
an evangelistic people. We had to be also to no 
small degree a militant people ; we had to fight our 
way ; we had to establish our right to be. These 
results we have now assuredly achieved. We shall 
not be a less evangelistic people than in former 
times ; but, still retaining the spirit of true evangel- 
ical fervor, we shall move on to all forms of whole- 
some educational and humanitarian work. 



GREATER BAPTIST EFFICIENCY 21 3 

Rapid strides we shall soon make, without doubt, 
in educational work. Great as have been our at- 
tainments in this respect in the past, they will be 
vastly greater in the near future. It is to be hoped 
that we shall stand in the very front rank among 
the educational leaders of our glorious republic. 
But we must also move on to the founding of hos- 
pitals, sanitariums, orphanages, and similar forms 
of humanitarian service. We have erred greatly 
in not having done this work so vigorously as we 
might in our earlier and later history. God is 
loudly calling to us to take our place among the 
foremost workers in these practical directions. God 
has great duties for us to perform, great characters 
for us to possess, and great honors for us to wear. 
May we be worthy A <.>■ r heroic, martyred, and 
sainted sires, worthy of our sublime opportunities, 
worthy of our high calling, and worthy of our divine 
Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! 



IX 

PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 1 

IT is with diffidence that I rise to speak on any 
phase of foreign missions. My recent and 
hurried trip gave me an opportunity of studying 
mission work only in the Hawaiian Islands and in 
Japan. In the former country I saw the good fruit- 
age of the labors of our Congregational churches, 
and in Japan I had the honor of meeting represent- 
atives of many churches, and especially our prom- 
inent Baptist workers. On three occasions I ad- 
dressed goodly numbers of missionaries from dif- 
ferent parts of Japan, from Corea, Formosa, China, 
and other heathen countries, but I did not have the 
opportunity of visiting Burma, or Southern India. 
A visit to these two fields of missionary labor I 
hope to make in the course of a few years. I had 
opportunities of meeting many of the friends and 
some of the critics of foreign mission work, and I 
learned to appreciate the services which our mis- 
sionaries have rendered and the difficulties they 
now encounter, as never before. Some of the needs 
in foreign fields I may be permitted to name and 
to emphasize. 

1 Delivered before the American Baptist Missionary Union, 
Asbury Park, May 22, 1896. 
214 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 21 5 

THE GOSPEL THE ONLY REMEDY. 

We need, in the first place, a profound, steadfast, 
and irresistible conviction that nothing but the 
gospel of Jesus Christ can save the heathen. This 
statement I believe to be true, whether we have in 
mind temporal or eternal salvation ; only the gospel 
can save the heathen to personal and family purity, 
to civic righteousness, and to true holiness. It is 
useless to deny that many persons are now doubt- 
ing the truthfulness of this statement. Doubt 
touching this point cuts all the sinews of missionary 
effort and greatly depletes missionary treasuries. 
If we inquire carefully as to the causes for decreased 
contributions we shall find them partly in the subtle 
skepticism of the time regarding the necessity of 
the gospel to the salvation of the heathen world. 
The recent visit of certain heathen men to the Par- 
liament of Religions in Chicago, has done some- 
thing to create and disseminate this skepticism. 
The faith of some has been shaken and the doubts 
of others have been multiplied. We have forgotten 
that whatever is noble in these gentlemen is largely 
the product of Christianity. They would never 
have heard of Chicago but for Christian teaching. 
They would never have had a desire to visit this coun- 
try but for the enlarging and ennobling influences of 
Christian education. How came they to burst the 
bonds of caste which would have restricted them to 
their own land ? The strong but gentle hand of 
Christianity broke these bonds which for centuries 



2l6 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

have held Hindus and other heathen religionists 
within the land of their birth. But for Christianity 
they would not have had the facilities to travel from 
their own country to America ; but for Christianity 
there would have been no exposition at Chicago ; 
but for Christianity these men would not have had 
the culture which made their addresses and pres- 
ence desirable and attractive ; but for Christianity 
they would not have possessed the high ideals 
which they exhibited to the assembled multitudes 
who listened to their words. Strictly speaking 
these men were not the product of heathenism 
pure and simple ; they were rather the product of 
heathenism somewhat inspired and exalted by 
Christian instruction and ideals. In opposing Chris- 
tianity these men were like those who climb up a 
ladder into a tree, and when seated on a branch 
and partaking of the luscious fruit, kick away the 
ladder and deny its value. In opposing Christianity 
they are like men seated on the branch of a tree who 
saw off the branch between themselves and the 
tree. The fact is that the local, ethnic, and merely 
ethical religions cannot really exalt men socially, 
intellectually, and spiritually. These religions have 
been tested for thousands of years and are to be 
heartily rejected because of their failure to bear de- 
sirable fruit. 

Christianity is the only universal religion the 
world has ever known. When on the mountain's 
side in Galilee our Lord gave his Great Commission 
he uttered the newest and sublimest truth ever 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 2\*J 

heard by human ears. Familiarity with this majes- 
tic command has blunted the edge of our wonder ; 
but if we transport ourselves to that time and place 
and listen to these words for the first time, we 
shall see that they are as comprehensive as they 
are novel, and as sublime as they are divine. Our 
Lord was apparently a Galilean peasant, without 
the courtiers of a king or the soldiers of a ruler, 
and yet he was sending his few followers forth to 
accomplish the greatest task that had ever been 
assigned to mortal man. They were to carry the 
glad tidings of salvation in his name to every crea- 
ture under heaven. Such a conception never en- 
tered the mind of the philosophers of Greece or 
Rome ; nor did it ever occur to the imagination of 
the dreamy thinkers of the Orient. Their religion 
was for a particular people in a particular country ; 
their faiths were local, or at most ethnic. Their 
gods were the gods of the grove, of the river, of 
the fountain, or of some other limited territory. 

Dr. Hanna has pointed out that among the Jews 
there were vague conceptions of a religion for the 
world as well as for Judaism ; but in the days of Christ, 
although the sacred books of the Jews gave these 
prophetic hints, the people had become the nar- 
rowest and most bigoted of the peoples of the earth. 
They gloried in their exclusiveness ; their faith and 
their patriotism were alike for their own people. 
Yet among this exclusive and bigoted race arose 
One who gave the world the conception of a univer- 
sal faith. The son of a Galilean tradesman is thus 



2l8 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

placed in the front rank of the religionists of the 
world. He broached and projected so original, so 
sublime, and so unique a conception that I to-day 
put upon his brow the crown of honor as the fore- 
most thinker the world has ever produced. Had 
Christ done nothing more than give the world the 
conception of a universal faith and worship, he 
would by that one contribution have deserved the 
first place among the thinkers and benefactors of 
the world. 

The criticisms of certain incompetent critics have 
also tended to destroy faith in the necessity of the 
gospel to the salvation of the heathen. Large num- 
bers of Europeans who visit Oriental countries 
have no faith whatever either in the desirability or 
possibility of saving the heathen. I was frequently 
asked by European traders whether I believed 
there ever was a genuine Asiatic Christian convert. 
The average European regards himself as belonging 
to a superior race, and he considers the Asiatic to 
be so greatly inferior to himself as to be fit only to 
be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water. He 
regards the Asiatic as in his proper place when he 
is serving his European master. The coolies and 
others who do the work for shipmasters and other 
European traders are regarded as little above cattle. 
Heathenism has cheapened humanity. Heathen- 
ism has robbed its votaries of the dignity and glory 
inherent in men and women made in the image of 
God. Revealed religion exalts men into the like- 
ness of their Creator. It lifted Moses from being 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 2IQ, 

the child of a slave to the honors of the royal house 
of Egypt. It lifted David from the position of a 
shepherd to the throne of Israel. It took Elisha 
from the plow and made him a prophet of God. 
It exalted Gideon to be the conqueror of the Mid- 
ianites and the' deliverer of Israel. It took Luther 
from the rank of a miner and made him a king 
among men. It exalted Carey from the shoe- 
maker's bench to a place among scholars and 
princes. It lifted Lincoln from splitting rails to the 
presidential chair, a seat as lofty as any throne 
among the nations. 

But heathenism separates men into castes and 
makes the lower the servant and slave of the higher. 
Even our missionaries must guard against the subtle 
temptation to regard the heathen peoples as be- 
longing to utterly inferior races. Heathenism holds 
human life at almost no value ; it makes it little 
better than the life of a serpent, a mouse, or a bat. 
Even some Europeans regard heathen men simply as 
beasts of burden and women as their toy or slave 
ministering only to their ignoble desires. Many 
Europeans who visit heathen lands see almost noth- 
ing of missionary labors and successes. They see 
only the worst side of the lowest heathenism in sea- 
port towns ; and, it must be admitted, that the 
heathen in those towns often see only the worst 
side of their European visitors. These critics are 
utterly incompetent to speak with authority. They 
make their ignorance the ground of their affirma- 
tions against Christian work in heathen lands. 



220 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Often, it is sorrowfully stated, their own lives are so 
immoral that the presence of missionaries is a con- 
stant rebuke, and the teaching of the missionaries 
excites their sharpest opposition. One blushes for 
some of his European brethren whom he sees in 
Asiatic cities. They often live without any restraint 
and they bring reproach upon both Europeanism 
and Christianity. It is impossible to speak with 
the exactness of detail which the facts warrant, 
when matters of this kind are under discussion. 

Many of our dilettante travelers take their cue 
from European military and naval officers and from 
European residents and so pronounce against mis- 
sionary work in heathen lands. Their judgment is 
absolutely worthless ; many of these travelers have 
not visited a mission and have not met a missionary. 
The more ignorant they are of both the more learn- 
edly do they talk against both. Men are apt to 
see in any country what they desire to see. Many 
men visit Ceylon and never see, far less shoot, an 
elephant ; they were not there to hunt elephants. 
Many other men visit the country and never see a 
missionary ; they were not there to visit missions 
and missionaries. The fact is that all that missions 
have done for Great Britain, they will do for Japan, 
China, Ceylon, India, and all the islands of the sea. 
I found it often helpful to remind Britons whom I 
met of the fact that Britain was once the home of 
as degraded a heathenism as is now seen in any 
heathen land. How did Britain become in so large 
a degree the mistress of the world ? 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 221 

Our forefathers once were worshipers of idols 
and once offered human sacrifices to false gods. 
Once they burned these sacrifices in large numbers 
to appease the wrath of their deities. While under 
the sway of Rome, Britain was somewhat Christian- 
ized, but when the Roman legions were withdrawn 
the Anglo-Saxons conquered much of the land and 
it lapsed again into paganism. Nearly a century 
after Hengist and Horsa landed, Augustine was 
sent, in 596, to bring some of the people back to 
their early faith, and others for the first time, to 
faith in Christianity. It is affirmed by Dr. Leonard 
that it was not until King Alfred's day, or nearly 
four hundred years after, that Britain could be con- 
sidered Christian. It ought not then to be con- 
sidered discouraging that the mighty peninsula of 
India is still largely heathen after a century of 
Christian service, and that Christians are compara- 
tively few in vast China, whose gates have been 
unbarred to Christian missionaries only about fifty 
years. What Britain was these heathen nations 
now largely are ; what Britain has become in litera- 
ture and in all forms of noble civilization, these na- 
tions may in considerable part become. No man 
with Anglo-Saxon blood in his veins ought to be 
found sneering at missions and missionaries to-day 
in Asiatic lands. These lawless Europeans bring 
the blush of shame to the cheek of European and 
American missionaries. The heathen people too 
often make no distinction between Christian and 
non-Christian Europeans ; they regard them all as 



222 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Christians, only the more intelligent make the dis- 
tinction which we are accustomed to observe at 
home. Too often these Europeans trample upon 
every law of purity, of humanity, and of God, in 
their relations with heathen peoples. Their tes- 
timony against missions is utterly invalid ; their 
testimony is often an attempt at justification of their 
own immorality. Nearly the whole Eurasian race 
is a witness against the lives of Europeans in Asiatic 
countries. In the providence of God the social 
sins of men may be overruled for the advancement 
of races and for the glory of God. Never was I 
so profoundly convinced of the necessity of the 
gospel to save the nations as I am at this moment. 

THESE PRINCIPLES AND THE JAPANESE. 

We sometimes hear it said that such a people as 
the Japanese, in many respects so refined, so cul- 
tured, so artistic, and so gentle, do not need the 
gospel of Christ. Those who so affirm are ignorant 
of the social life of the Japanese people. What 
has their Shintoism done for them ? It is at best 
but an embodiment of crude superstitions ; it is 
simply nature- worship, hero-worship, and ancestor- 
worship. It is a philosophical system rather than 
a religion ; it utterly lacks moral earnestness ; it is 
really a Pantheon of demi-gods. Even Buddhism 
has been more educational in its influence than 
Shintoism. Buddhism is an improvement on the 
childish system of nature worship ; Buddhism has 
given the people some realization of rewards and 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 223 

punishments. It has also presented a higher con- 
ception of humanity, and a somewhat nobler stand- 
ard of ethics ; it has also stimulated some degree 
of intellectual activity and of devotion to philosophy, 
poetry, and literature ; it has also, nominally at 
least, taught a greater degree of self-restraint than 
does Shintoism ; but it has not successfully con- 
trolled the evil tendencies of human nature. 

Recent statistics show that there is over one di- 
vorce to every three marriages in Japan. The 
common people have been instructed almost wholly 
in Buddhism, but love of truth and the practice of 
chastity, for their own sake, are certainly not na- 
tional virtues. Indeed, it has been frequently af- 
firmed by writers competent to judge, that lying 
and licentiousness are national vices. One cannot 
before a promiscuous audience speak of the long- 
established institutions regulated by law which are 
found in large cities and seaport towns. One mar- 
vels that parents virtually sell their daughters to 
vicious lives, and that often such lives are considered 
as in a sense meritorious because contributing to 
the support of parents. Before the introduction of 
Christianity, and for some time after, until its in- 
fluence was practically felt, the grossness of im- 
morality in Japan was so astounding as to be almost 
incredible in our day ; the most abominable shrines 
were found along the roads and in the provinces 
and were sold by thousands in the shops. The 
most indecent figures, it is authoritatively stated, 
were made of confectionery, of porcelain, and of 



224 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

faience. These were carried at the temple festivals 
and at picnics, in the arms or on the shoulders in 
the public processions, and the performances ac- 
companying the display of these emblems were 
incredibly abominable. Much of the literature of 
the time could not be translated into English 
speech. Fortunately the symbols of which I have 
spoken were abolished by edict in 1872. I do not 
speak of the promiscuous intermingling of the sexes 
in public bathhouses, as conventionalities so often 
set up standards of propriety ; but the recognized 
forms of immorality, of idolatry, and of revolting 
superstition are yet as common as they are repre- 
hensible. My esteemed friend, Dr. Verbeck, whose 
acquaintance was most valuable to me, affirms that 
the immorality of Japan is probably a more for- 
midable foe to Christianity than is the idolatry of 
Japan. 

THE CONDITION IN INDIA. 

It is not otherwise in India. It is not too mucn 
to say that idolatry is organized impurity. There 
are temples in India on whose walls, carved in 
stone, are representations which do not admit of 
characterization before this audience. One has 
only to visit Benares, the capital of heathenism, to 
see the horrible vileness of heathen faiths. This is 
the most sacred of all the sacred cities of Hindu- 
ism. Hither come pilgrims from all parts of India 
to bathe in the Ganges. They are happy if they 
can die in the sacred waters. I never before saw 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 225 

how abominable a city could become. What Je- 
rusalem was to the Jew in the early day, and Rome 
to the Latin, Mecca to the Mohammedan, that and 
more Benares is now to the Hindu. When Rome 
was unknown and Athens was in its youth, Benares 
was a city already ancient and famous. Driving 
into the city one sees troops of pilgrims, footsore 
and weary, who have measured their length over 
the ground for a thousand miles to bathe in the 
holy river. There is a strange mingling of ages, 
races, and sexes on the banks and in the waters of 
the river. The pilgrims are here from the extreme 
north and extreme south of India ; they know no 
language in which they can make themselves under- 
stood by one another, but they are here for a com- 
mon purpose. Here in this sacred city is the 
temple in which a certain sort of worship is offered 
to monkeys. Here are sacred bulls ; here is the 
so-called well of knowledge ; here are the foulest 
sights and the most abominable odors ; sacred 
cattle obstruct the streets and render them unfit 
for foot-passage,; and here are the foul tanks which 
have frequently become hot-beds of pestilence. It 
is said that there are over two thousand temples 
and shrines in Benares, and they are all in every 
stage of filth, ruin, and vileness. 

I have only touched upon these horrid facts, 
and I have spoken far within the truth. We saw 
heathenism at the Parliament of Religions with some 
degree of Christian clothing, Christian culture, and 
Christian propriety ; but in Benares one sees it in its 



226 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

natural and indescribable vileness. If one had any 
faith whatever in God and in eternal things, and any 
regard for man, he ought to send missionaries to 
heathenism because of Christianity's inculcation of 
sanitary laws and of humanitarian impulses, and 
because it gives medical help to suffering, sorrow- 
ing, dying men and women. No man with a spark 
of true humanity in his breast, not to speak of 
eternal things, can fail to be interested in the sub- 
ject of missions in heathen countries if he knows 
the facts regarding the degradation of men and the 
awful suffering of women. 

ABLEST MEN FOR FOREIGN FIELDS. 

We need, in the second place, our ablest men 
for work in foreign fields. There are men who are 
able in a very real sense because of their fuller 
consecration to the honor of Christ and the salva- 
tion of men. These workers may not be so able 
from a purely intellectual point of view as are other 
workers, but they can render noble service because 
of their superior devotion ; but we need men of 
the highest intellectual culture as well as the deepest 
spiritual consecration. The work to be performed 
is more difficult in many ways than the work in the 
home field. Difficult languages have to be mas- 
tered. It is possible to do some work in preaching 
through interpreters, but the interpreter is a barrier 
between the speaker and hearer. No man can 
pour out his soul with the fervor and power which 
are in him when the stream of thought has to pass 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 227 

through the mind of another man. The acquisi- 
tion of a difficult language is with most men the 
labor of many years. Where a man knows the 
field to which he is going, he might do something 
before leaving home toward acquiring the language 
of the people to whom he is sent. It is inconceiv- 
able that a man who has never studied any of the 
modern languages, has not studied Hebrew, Greek, 
or Latin, and perhaps has not thoroughly mastered 
English, can after years of diligent labor get even 
a working knowledge of Japanese, Chinese, and 
the various tribal dialects of India. Probably it is 
true that but few missionaries have a reasonable 
mastery of the languages of the countries to which 
they have gone. It is said that an educated Chinese 
closing his eyes and listening to our own heroic 
and beloved Dr. Ashmore, could not tell but that 
he was listening to a learned mandarin. Dr. Ver- 
beck has made a similar mastery of the Japanese, 
and several of our noble Baptist missionaries in 
Japan are no mean scholars in the Japanese lan- 
guage and literature. We have, taking them as a 
whole, a most intelligent and consecrated body of 
Baptist men and women as our representatives in 
Japan. 

We must strive to put the standard still higher 
in all our mission fields. Where dictionaries and 
grammars and translations of the Bible have to be 
made, thorough scholars are an absolute necessity. 
They are necessary also in laying the foundations of 
great Christian enterprises in these foreign fields. 



228 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Their work in this respect is far more difficult than 
the work at home. They need to be masters of 
church polity, familiar with business methods, and 
with all the means by which men may be reached 
for Christ. In dealing with the representatives of 
various heathen faiths our missionaries ought to 
manifest a masterful knowledge of these faiths. 
Many otherwise ignorant heathen are thoroughly 
familiar with the traditions and philosophies of the 
ethnic religions. A tyro in these studies would be 
pitiably helpless in the hands of these experts. 
There are many heathen trained in Christian 
schools who do not become disciples of the Chris- 
tian faith. All their native, subtle, and philosophic 
tendencies and attainments are reinforced by their 
Christian education. These educated heathen are 
entirely familiar with the history of Great Britain 
and of America, with the literatures of both coun- 
tries, with the philosophical systems of many na- 
tions, and with the elements of weakness in the 
practical working of Christian faiths and govern- 
ments. They will discourse learnedly of municipal 
politics in America and of our many forms of social 
and other vices. The man who is to meet these 
experts must be no novice in history, science, and 
comparative religions. They are often masterful 
men within their special spheres of thought and 
argument. 

INFLUENCING EUROPEANS. 

Our missionaries also need to be men of varied 
learning, men of refined social manners, and men 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 229 

of affairs, in order rightly to influence the Europeans 
whom they meet in heathen lands. Many of these 
Europeans are college men engaged in various 
forms of scientific and other pursuits in these foreign 
countries. They are in danger, because of their 
unfavorable environment, of throwing off all the re- 
straints of morality and religion. There is a wonder- 
ful field for missionary work among Europeans in 
the land called heathen. It may not be a very 
hopeful field ; indeed, sometimes it is well-nigh 
hopeless, but the servant of God cannot be indif- 
ferent to the needs of these Europeans. Their im- 
moral lives greatly retard the work of missions 
among the heathen. For their own sake, as well 
as because of the evil influence they often exert 
among the native people, we ought to strive to 
lead them to Christ ; our missionaries ought to be 
of such a character and to possess such training 
that they can freely mingle with and greatly influ- 
ence for truth and God these great classes of Eu- 
ropeans. Many of them are young men away 
from all restraints of family and church ; and their 
case makes a powerful and tender appeal to the 
hearts of men of God. Many of them are engaged 
in great business enterprises and have hundreds of 
natives under their control. If thoroughly con- 
verted they would be a marvelous power for God. 

In India, especially, there are the thousands of 
soldiers with their officers. I took great pains to 
learn much regarding the moral life of these young 
men. The facts saddened my heart. The religious 



23O CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

influences about them are too often formal, per- 
functory, and so largely powerless. I was greatly 
moved on their behalf. They are nominally Chris- 
tian ; many of them, I regret to say, are practically 
heathen. Some of them, I fear, bring curses and 
not blessings to the heathen populations. It would 
be worth much for God and humanity if the mis- 
sionaries from America could reach large numbers 
of these soldiers. Some of our missionaries do 
reach them to some degree ; some of our mission- 
aries also reach, in considerable numbers, the Eu- 
rasian people, but it seems as if new movements 
should be made on all these lines. I was pro- 
foundly impressed with the idea that the Salvation 
Army has accomplished but little in India. There 
is here a great field for earnest and fruitful labor 
for the honor of Christ and the salvation of men 
nominally Christian. Similar remarks would apply 
to the large numbers of seamen visiting the seaports 
of heathen countries. In their case, as in the case 
of soldiers, there are vast opportunities for good. 

SUCCESS AND ABILITY. 

Men of the highest character and of the fullest 
culture are needed even more in foreign fields than 
at home. In one sense there are now no foreign 
fields. The world is one ; there are now no hermit 
nations. India is as near New York now as Lon- 
don was a little more than a generation ago. The 
newspapers in India contain graphic reports of 
boat-races and some other public matters, in Amer- 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 23 1 

ica. There are, of course, outlying regions in all 
these foreign countries which are away from cen- 
ters of international knowledge and interest, but 
strictly speaking the world is one as never before 
in its history. This fact may rob missions of some 
of the romantic charms which once surrounded la- 
bor in foreign lands ; but it has more than com- 
pensating advantages. Telegraphs and telephones 
now girdle the world ; the remotest mission station 
is in close touch with Boston. It is now no great 
deprivation to live in Japan or Indian cities, or 
even in country districts. Whatever of culture is 
necessaiy at home is emphatically necessary abroad. 
It has always been true that men of power make 
themselves felt wherever their lot is cast. Some 
missionaries in Japan are in close touch with civil 
and military officers of the highest character. The 
Roman Church in French Canada never could have 
secured its influence but for the great and learned 
men who were its first missionaries. The patient 
Lalemont and the heroic Brebeuf, whose history is 
so vividly told by Mr. Francis Parkman in connec- 
tion with the history of Jesuit missions in Canada, 
were men of apostolic zeal and of corresponding in- 
tellectual power. They have left the impress of 
their personality in the Roman Church in Canada 
to this hour. They were men of high social stand- 
ing in France ; they were men of learning and men 
of consecration. 

On May 6, 1542, the illustrious Francis Xavier 
landed in Goa, India. He belonged to the high 



232 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

nobility of Spain ; he was distinguished for learning 
and for eloquence. To the time of his death he 
never ceased to use all his powers for the pros- 
perity of the order and the church to which he be- 
longed. The influence of Carey and Marshman, of 
Judson and Boardman, of MacKay, of Livingstone, 
and of other learned and consecrated men in vari- 
ous countries, will be as enduring as the churches 
which they founded. These men never could 
have had the power which they exercised for God 
but for their broad scholarship and their deep con- 
secration. Consecration is good. Consecration is 
indispensable, but no amount of piety will sanctify 
stupidity. The Apostle Paul did more work than 
all the other apostles put together. His broad 
scholarship was matched by his fiery zeal and by 
his whole-hearted devotion. Whatever makes men 
of this stamp necessary at home makes them vastly 
more necessary abroad. We ought earnestly to 
pray for men of this high order as candidates for 
foreign fields. Missionary Boards cannot send men 
who do not apply to be sent. The responsibility, 
therefore, rests largely with the churches ; it rests 
largely with the pastors. Missionary Boards will 
do well often to say no, with emphasis, when me- 
diocre men apply for appointments. The best in- 
vestment the churches can make is in men of the 
right stamp ; the poorest investment they can make 
is in men of the opposite character. 

Appointment to a foreign field should be the 
highest honor in the gift of the Baptist denomina- 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 233 

tion. Candidates for this high honor should be 
thoroughly tested and proved before their appoint- 
ment is made. To pass the requisite examination 
should be the holy ambition of our best men in 
colleges and seminaries ; to prepare men to pass 
this examination should be the endeavor of college 
and theological professors. It may be said that 
men of the great ability of those named are not 
often found for fields either at home or abroad. 
Doubtless the statement is correct ; but they would 
be oftener found if they were sought out, encour- 
aged, and made the subject of special prayer by our 
churches. The highest angel before God's throne 
would be honored in being sent in Christian service 
to the lowest peoples. The conversion of the world 
will be seen when men of great natural ability, and 
vast learning, and of the deepest consecration, are 
sent to foreign fields. We want no kindergarten 
theological seminaries to train foreign missionaries. 
Such institutions may train men who can render 
service as business men or in other forms of work 
as laymen in foreign lands ; but men so trained 
are not capable of mastering the enormous diffi- 
culties encountered in foreign mission work. May 
God stir up our churches to pray earnestly for 
additional and thoroughly equipped laborers in 
the Master's great vineyard at home and abroad ! 

THE CONVERSION OF LEARNED NATIVES. 

We need also, in the next place, earnestly to 
pray and faithfully to labor for the conversion of great 



234 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

men who are natives in foreign lands. It is true, 
still, as it was in the days of the apostles, " That not 
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, 
not many noble, are called." It is still true that, 
" God hath chosen the foolish things of the world 
to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the 
weak things of the world to confound the things 
which are mighty ; and base things of the world, 
and things which are despised, hath God chosen, 
yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught 
things that are ; that no flesh should glory in his 
presence." 

We thoroughly believe that the foolishness of 
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is 
stronger than men ; nevertheless God has often 
chosen men trained to oppose his gospel, to be- 
come its heroic defenders. The conversion of 
learned Brahmins and others in high rank would 
be a wonderful achievement for the gospel ; it 
would illustrate the gospel's power and would 
greatly advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ ; it 
would bring confusion and dismay to the supporters 
of heathenism and joy and triumph to the preachers 
of Christ. The kingdom of God can never make 
the most rapid strides in heathen lands until con- 
verted heathen are its preachers. Dr. Alexander 
Duff has well remarked, that as a rule the great 
European reformers were natives of the kingdoms 
which under God they reformed. Luther never 
could, as he reminds us, have done the work in 
any other country which he did in Germany. He 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 235 

was trained to support the Roman Church, and 
being thus familiar with her elements of strength 
and weakness, he did mighty service in opposing 
her errors. In Germany, Luther and Melanchthon 
were well-nigh irresistible ; they knew the German 
character ; they were masters of all the idioms of 
the German tongue. Luther, as Dr. Duff rightly 
suggests, would have been comparatively powerless 
in Scotland. He would have been in Scotland an 
eagle encaged. He could not acquire the minute 
knowledge of the idioms of Scottish speech and he 
would always have been comparatively ignorant of 
Scottish traits. He never could have been a great 
reformer in Scotland. Beza and Calvin were mighty 
in Switzerland, but they could not have been one 
tithe as powerful in an English-speaking country. 
Knox was the thunderbolt of God in Scotland, but 
he would have been comparatively weak in Germany 
or Switzerland. Latimer and Ridley exercised 
vast power in England, but if transplanted to some 
country on the continent, they would have been 
shorn of much influence and would never have 
left enduring monuments of their consecrated zeal. 
God never wastes power ; he never unnecessarily 
multiplies miracles ; he qualifies men by giving 
them minute familiarity with the domestic, social, 
civil, and religious characteristics of a people. 
These qualities cannot really be communicated to 
a stranger ; one must grow up in the atmosphere 
and absorb the distinctive characteristics of a na- 
tion, that he may greatly move it in religious work. 



236 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

No foreigner can fully strike the secret chords of a 
nation's heart. God always wisely adapts and care- 
fully qualifies his great servants for their great 
work. The real reformers of India must be In- 
dians ; of Japan, Japanese ; of China, Chinese; and 
so of all the other countries of the globe. We 
ought most earnestly to pray that God may make 
bare his arm in the conversion of the leaders of 
Hinduism, of Shintoism, of Buddhism, of Brahmin- 
ism, and every other "ism " opposed to the gospel 
of Jesus Christ. When such men are brought into 
the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Satan will 
tremble. Great national awakenings must come, 
on their human side, from great national leaders. 
For this reason, as for other reasons, we need our 
strongest men in foreign fields to grapple with 
Satan in his strongholds. God has given us some 
such men in every country in which we are now 
laboring. May he give them power to confront 
every form of heathen faith with the gospel of Jesus 
Christ ; may they be able, as did the Apostle Paul, 
to confound the reasoning of heathen philosophers 
and the superstitions of heathen mythologists ! 
Perhaps we have not taken this special phase of 
mission work to heart as we ought. Is not .the 
time ripe now for laboring and praying as never 
before, for the conversion of the leaders of heathen 
thought in every land? Shall we not hold up 
Japan, that is now turning its face toward the light 
of civilization and the Sun of Righteousness, in the 
arms of our faith to God that he may convert her 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 237 

great men, bringing them into sweet subjection to 
Jesus Christ? 

During the recent war with China, Christianity 
was on trial as fully as was Japan's skill and brav- 
ery. Wonderful was the favor which men in 
authority gave to the word of God as distributed 
among the soldiers of Japan ; great were the honors 
given to Christian soldiers. Many of our Baptist 
Christians were as heroic for Christ on the battlefield 
as they were for the honor of their nation. The war 
was a victory for Christian civilization and for Chris- 
tian confession as truly as for Japanese loyalty and 
bravery. God used it to honor his ministers and to 
glorify his Son. Vast China cannot long resist the 
power of the newer civilization which she must ex- 
perience before the twentieth century shall be long 
upon us. Already India feels the throb of the 
Christian activity of the past one hundred years. 
Great and good men have been laboring long under 
ground, and the first quarter in the twentieth cen- 
tury will probably see greater results for Christian- 
ity than the entire nineteenth century produced. 
Foundations have been laid ; the structure will 
now be erected. Much time was necessarily spent 
in -learning languages, making grammars, diction- 
aries, and translations ; this work has now been 
done. These great countries will soon be a net- 
work of railways ; China cannot forever resist the 
tendencies of progress. The trans-Siberian railway 
will be a spinal column connecting far separated 
countries and nations long removed from one an- 



238 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

other. Marvelous are the blessed results which will 
soon be seen among all the nations under heaven. 
God will turn and overturn until his Son shall reign. 
Civil and religious liberty will be had by nations 
long in bondage, and the fuller freedom which only 
Christ can give will be the blessed possession of all 
the nations of the earth. God hasten the day ! 

REVIVAL OF MISSIONARY ZEAL. 

We need, in the last place, a great revival of 
missionary zeal and consecration at home and 
abroad. There must be coldness at the extremities 
if there is coldness at the heart. Anti-mission 
churches are anti-Christian churches. Men are un- 
worthy the Christian name who do not desire that 
all others should share the blessings of Christianity. 
Those who selfishly hoard their blessings inevitably 
lose their blessings. Only those who are willing to 
lose their lives for Christ's sake, and their brethren's 
sake, do truly find their lives for time and for eter- 
nity. Only those who appreciate for the heathen 
the salvation which the Son of God came to bring 
to the earth, can rightly appreciate that salvation 
for themselves. We must rise to a proper concep- 
tion of our high calling as the ambassadors of Jesus 
Christ. We must send the gospel for the sake of 
the heathen who will perish without it, and also for 
our own sake lest we perish from neglect of our 
duty. The church of Christ is largely asleep re- 
garding its privileges and obligations to give the 
gospel to the world. We need consecrated enter- 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 239 

prise ; we need more men who will give their ripest 
thought to planning for the spread of the kingdom 
of God ; we need more men who shall feel that the 
greatest honor beneath God's heavens is to labor 
for the salvation of men at home and abroad. We 
need a baptism of spiritual power and consecrated 
grace ; we need more men who shall be as a flame 
of fire in their zeal for God and the heathen. 

Already with the close of the century men are 
planning for new methods of work in heathen 
lands. "A New Programme of Missions" is the 
title of a booklet by Luther D. Wishard ; in this 
little volume he suggests several solutions of the 
problem as to how best to enlist all our forces for 
the world's evangelization. The students' Christian 
movements in our own country is one of the meth- 
ods which has in it signs of hope. He also finds 
encouragement in the Christian work among stu- 
dents in the far East, and especially in the distinc- 
tively Christian colleges of mission lands. 

But after all we have not reached the true solu- 
tion of the problem ; it must find its solution in a 
deeper consecration of ourselves to Christ's work 
in every land. When that spirit of consecration 
comes, the money power of the world will be con- 
secrated to Christ. When that consecration comes, 
we shall feel that missionary work is our highest 
honor on earth and will bring the richest reward 
in heaven. Would to God that the consecrating 
touch of the hand pierced upon the cross might 
now be put upon all the churches of America ! 



240 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

What are we waiting for? All the doors into 
heathenism are wide open. When we rise to an 
appreciation of our privileges the morning of the 
new day will dawn in heathen lands ; then the 
morning stars will sing together, and all the sons 
of God will shout for joy. Let us revive the mis- 
sionary concert in all our churches. Let us pray 
as never before that the Lord may send forth la- 
borers into his harvest. Let us be willing to go, 
and to have our sons and daughters be thoroughly 
prepared to go, should God honor them with a 
call ; and let us bring all the tithes into the store- 
house of the Lord. Then a new day of creation 
will begin, then tidal waves of power from God will 
flow over the world as the tides now sweep over 
the bosom of the sea ; then the crimson and gold 
of millennial day will color the eastern sky ; then 
earth and heaven will join hands and the whole 
world will be radiant with the glory of the Lord. 

The propaganda of religious faith among heathen 
nations of the Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, late 
President of "The World's Parliament of Relig- 
ions," may have in it elements of hope for the 
world's redemption. I have read with much in- 
terest the farewell address delivered by Dr. Bar- 
rows in New York before he went on his mission 
to the educated Hindus. He will attempt to argue 
the coming triumph of Christianity because it pre- 
sents to men, in the Bible, the only volume worthy 
to become the sacred text-book of the race. In 
this address he proves in glowing language the 



PRESSING NEEDS OF FOREIGN FIELDS 24 1 

superiority of the Bible to all the other sacred books 
of humanity. He shows that it has lifted the mind 
and transformed the life and given to human dark- 
ness the light of the celestial world ; that this book 
is the fountain of the educational systems of the 
new world, giving us our public schools, our Chris- 
tian colleges, and our republican institutions ; that 
it was an echo of the Scriptures that sounded 
through the best lines of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; that from it sprang the reformations 
which destroyed the barbarism of slavery and made 
it possible for Abraham Lincoln to issue the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation ; that the English language 
and all the nations speaking the Teutonic tongues 
are now rapidly increasing ; that forty-two million 
square miles of land surface are to-day under the 
control of Christian powers ; that the African con- 
tinent will soon be occupied by a nation speaking 
the English tongue, and Dr. Barrows quotes John 
Fiske as saying, " that the day is at hand when 
four-fifths of the human race will trace their pedi- 
gree to English forefathers." 

Dr. Barrows further shows that the fundamental 
law of Christianity is the law of life, and he quotes 
one as saying that, " Buddhism brought face to 
face with the problem of the world's evil and possi- 
ble improvement evades it, begs the whole question 
at the outset ; prays, ' Deliver us from existence ! 
Save us from life and give us as little of it as pos- 
sible ! ' Christianity faces the problem and flinches 
not ; orders advance all along the line of endeavor, 



242 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

and prays, ' Deliver us from evil ' ; and is ever of 
good cheer because its Captain and Leader says, 
' I have overcome the world, go win it for me ! I 
have come that they might have life, and that they 
might have it more abundantly.' " 

We hope for the best from the institutes which 
Dr. Barrows may found. The time is soon coming 
when our ablest thinkers in America and Great 
Britain will go to India and Japan to discuss the 
great problems of life and immortality ; the time is 
coming when the American people and the govern- 
ment at Washington will appreciate the value of 
American missions and "missionaries. They are 
most humiliatingly delinquent in this regard to- 
day. Every kind of business our government 
seems ready to protect in foreign lands except the 
missionary business. A banker, a brewer, or a 
shopkeeper of any sort, would have his property 
protected by the ships of the United States, but 
both the government and the people seem strangely 
indifferent to the millions of property invested in 
missions and to the lives of consecrated missionaries 
in Armenia, China, and other lands. Christianity 
has had a grand opportunity of showing its worth 
by contrast with Mohammedanism and other forms 
of semi-heathenism in Armenia. God will use these 
terrible recent experiences to arouse Christian na- 
tions to a realization of the value of missions and 
to rebuke the silly fad of the hour which endeavors 
to depreciate Christianity and to glorify the cruel 
religions of the Orient. 



PRESSING NEEDS OF POREIGN FIELDS 243 

I hope and pray that the great God may turn 
and overturn, shaking the tottering throne of the 
tyrannical sultan even though both throne and 
sultan should fall into the Bosphorus. The day is 
coming when Christian Britain and America will 
feel that the noblest use for warships, as well as 
ships of merchandise, is to contribute to the advance- 
ment of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The day is 
coming when our missionaries will receive their 
guerdon as the pioneers of civilization, as the har- 
bingers of international amity, and as the founders 
of enduring temporal prosperity, as truly as the 
heralds of the glorious gospel. England and 
America, literature and science, civilization and 
humanity, owe more than any words can adequately 
describe to the preachers of the gospel in lands 
that long lay in the darkness of ignorance and sin. 
The day was when Great Britain sneered with Sid- 
ney Smith at William Carey as " the consecrated 
cobbler," in going to convert the heathen. Many 
so-called Christians, as well as men of the world, 
believed that he was going on a fool's errand. 
The years passed, and Carey is dying at the age of 
seventy-three ; to his bedside comes the Bishop of 
India, the representative of the Church of England 
in that great peninsula, the representative of the 
church to which Sidney Smith and his sneering as- 
sociates belonged ; this bishop bows his head at 
the deathbed of Carey and invokes the blessing of 
this dying and now sainted and immortal mission- 
ary. The time had been when the British author- 



244 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

ities denied Carey a landing place when he strove 
to reach Bengal ; now, after years of consecrated 
toil, he is laying aside his cross for his crown, and 
the government in India drops all its flags at half- 
mast ; the officials learn to do honor to a man who 
has done more for India than all the British states- 
men and generals from the day that Britain first 
put foot on Indian soil to this hour. The day is 
coming when the whole world will acknowledge its 
indebtedness to Jesus Christ as King in Zion, and 
to his lowly missionaries as heralds of all that is 
noblest in civilization, all that is sublimest in hu- 
manity, and all that is divinest in Christianity. God 
hasten the day when the kingdoms of this world 
shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and Sav- 
iour Jesus Christ ! 



X 

ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 1 

THE establishment of all forms of missionary- 
work is the very heart of Christianity. It 
opens a broad field for effort and prayer. The 
church of Christ is nothing if it is not a great mis- 
sionary organization. An anti-mission church is 
an anti-Christian church. Such a church must die, 
and the sooner it dies the better ; but beside the 
dead body an honest minister could not say, 
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 
For such a church God has no use, the world no 
respect, and the devil no dread. I hope the time 
will never come when the Calvary Church shall 
cease to be interested in all the great movements 
of all the churches for the conversion of the world 
to Jesus Christ. 

The gospel is the harmonizer of all the conflict- 
ing experiences of human society ; it is the divine 
specific for sin. It comes to the world at its lowest 
and darkest point with help and hope. Christ was 
a workingman ; his apostles were workingmen ; all 
that is true in communism is the offspring of Christ's 

1 Parts of the discourse delivered in Calvary Church, New York 
City, May 12, 1895, in connection with the services commemorat- 
ing the twenty-fifth anniversary of the author's pastorate of that 
church, 

245 



246 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

religion ; and all that is evil is opposed by that 
gospel. Christ's religion means to conquer the 
world. This is its lofty ambition ; this is its divine 
destiny. It stands unique among the religions of 
the world, because it knows nothing of the narrow- 
ness and bigotry of Judaic faith or of classic cul- 
ture. No philosopher of Greece or Rome, or of 
the imaginative East, ever dreamed of a universal 
religion. Jesus Christ gave that idea to the world, 
and away over the hills of Judea and Samaria went 
his apostles preaching a gospel needed by, intended 
for, and adapted to, all men. This gospel revolu- 
tionized literature, architecture, religion, and the 
world. Jean Paul Richter was right when he said : 
"With his pierced hand Christ has lifted empires 
off their hinges, turned the stream of centuries out 
of its channel, and he still governs the ages." 

God has greatly blessed the Calvary Church in 
its local, city, home, and foreign mission work. God 
has greatly blessed the Baptist denomination in its 
mission work in every land. God has given us 
the honor of conducting the most successful forms 
of mission work among the heathen ever known in 
the church of Christ. We have seen in fields under 
our direction days of more than pentecostal power ; 
we have seen the heathen flocking to the feet of 
Christ, to the waters of baptism, and to the table of 
communion. The last twenty-five years have been 
a time of constant advancement in our great socie- 
ties at home and abroad. We have markedly 
changed the methods of work in progress twenty- 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 247 

five years ago ; we have correspondingly enlarged 
our horizons of hope, faith, and effort A quarter 
of a century ago the problem was to find mission- 
aries and to secure open doors into mission fields ; 
to-day the problem is to find money to support 
consecrated men and women who are ready to 
enter the doors providentially opened. 

During the past few years our Home Mission 
Society has supported a larger number of laborers 
than ever before in its remarkably successful history. 
In 1883 the Livingstone Inland Mission came into 
our hands. In these great foreign fields we are 
maintaining schools, translating the Scriptures, and 
distributing many forms of religious literature. We 
have at this moment in our foreign field about three 
thousand laborers, including native preachers and 
Bible readers. We reported last year over thir- 
teen thousand baptisms and a church-membership 
of more than one hundred and seventy thousand. 
During the period covered by this pastorate, women 
have come into great prominence as missionary 
workers in raising money at home and in laboring 
abroad. In 1871 two foreign missionary societies, 
with headquarters in Boston and Chicago, were or- 
ganized by our noble Baptist women. They now 
have their missionaries in Burma, India, China, 
and Japan, and a few also in Europe and some in 
Africa. During the past year they have supported 
more than one hundred missionaries, many Bible 
women, several hundred schools, and all at an ex- 
pense of about two hundred thousand dollars. 



248 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

In 1877 two Home Mission Societies were or- 
ganized by our Baptist women. They have in 
Chicago their excellent training school for mission- 
ary workers. In 1888 the Women's Missionary 
Union was formed, auxiliary to the Southern Bap- 
tist Convention. There is almost no limit to the 
possibilities open before our churches in mission 
fields abroad as well as at home. The great chapter 
of modern missionary work is the history of the 
Ongole mission field. On the east coast of the 
great Indian Peninsula is the field of the Telugus. 
For nearly fifty years the work in this field was 
well-nigh hopeless ; at one time it seemed certain 
that the mission would be abandoned. In 1876 
there were four thousand Christians in the mission ; 
then came the wondrous grace and mighty power 
of God, and more than nine thousand were bap- 
tized within sixty days. On the third of July, 1878, 
two thousand two hundred and twenty-two were 
baptized, being the largest number baptized in a 
single day since Pentecost. 

When the Calvary Church was on Twenty-third 
street, on a certain Sunday night the ordinance of 
baptism was observed. There turned into the 
church that evening, apparently by accident, but 
doubtless by divine direction, a young Cuban exile 
named Alberto J. Diaz. Mr. Diaz was born in 
Havana in 1852, was graduated from the university 
in Havana, and then studied for the medical pro- 
fession. Soon after completing his course in med- 
icine he joined a movement in opposition to the 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 249 

government, and in order to escape capture by 
government officials he, with some friends, ventured 
out into the sea upon planks ; and while his friends 
were lost, he was found by a vessel, taken aboard, 
and brought to New York. This patriotic exile 
was stricken while in Brooklyn by what seemed to 
be a mortal disease. While lying ill in a boarding 
house he was converted to God by the faithfulness 
of a young Christian woman who lived in the same 
house and who daily read to him the Bible. He 
was raised up to health and his heart was on fire 
with missionary zeal. 

His great desire was that Cuba should know Jesus 
Christ, and he entered the Union Theological Semi- 
nary in this city to prepare himself for the Christian 
ministry. Soon after he was baptized in Brook- 
lyn by the late Rev. R. B. Montgomery. His soul 
still glowed with zeal for the salvation of his coun- 
trymen, and in 1883 he landed in Havana with 
nothing but a box of Bibles and his faith in God. 
He immediately began to preach the glorious gos- 
pel, but the Roman Church, true to all its history of 
sectarian bigotry and inquisitorial persecution, cast 
him into prison ; but in prison he preached the gos- 
pel. Our government finally interfered and Diaz 
was released. He continued to preach in Havana, 
and men and women were converted in large num- 
bers. He had no book to guide him in the form 
of church government which should be adopted 
but the New Testament, and the New Testament 
made him and the other believers Baptists. For 



250 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

six months his mother refused to speak to him 
because of his heresy ; but she herself found Christ 
as a personal Saviour, and was the first convert 
whom he baptized. At her baptism, he failed to 
repeat the usual formula, and said with great emo- 
tion, "O Lord Jesus, this is my mother." 

Six years pass; it is now 1889, and there were 
reported twenty missionaries, twenty-seven churches 
and stations, and a total membership of nearly one 
thousand five hundred. Twelve years pass ; Brother 
Diaz returns for occasional visits to New York, re- 
ceives a welcome in the Calvary Church and in 
every church, and is able to report to the glory of 
God a membership of two thousand five hundred, 
besides twenty-six Sunday-schools with two thou- 
sand two hundred and twenty-eight teachers and 
scholars. This Cuban work is one of the marvels 
of modern Christendom, and gives promise of con- 
stant enlargement under this noble man of God. 
One of the greatest events during the last twenty- 
five years in the history of Baptist foreign missions 
was the raising in 1 892, the Centennial year of the 
modern missionary movement, of one million dol- 
lars for that work. This enormous undertaking 
was wisely planned, vigorously pushed, and triumph- 
antly concluded. May God help the Calvary Church, 
the Baptist denomination, and all churches of Jesus 
Christ, to press forward in their mission work at 
home and abroad, until every creature shall hear the 
gospel, and all the world shall lie in sweet submis- 
sion at the pierced feet of Jesus Christ ! 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 25 I 

EDUCATIONAL WORK. 

We pray, also, that God may establish our edu- 
cational work. This church has striven to do its 
full duty in general and denominational educational 
work. There has never been a time when we have 
not had a large number of students in high schools, 
academies, colleges, theological seminaries, and 
other professional schools. We have, at this time, 
a goodly number who are engaged in preparing 
themselves for the gospel ministry at home and for 
mission work abroad. Among these students are 
representatives of several nationalities, as in the 
church itself there are as many nationalities as were 
present on the day of Pentecost. Our interest in, 
and contributions for, educational work have marked 
the entire pastorate. During the last twenty-five 
years as a denomination we have entered upon a 
new era in educational work in America. No 
movement has been more marked in our denomina- 
tional ranks, and perhaps none in the history of the 
country, than recent educational work in the Bap- 
tist denomination. There were among our Baptist 
fathers those who did not attach due importance 
to education as a preparation for the gospel min- 
istry ; but new men and new movements came to 
the front a century ago, and still more markedly 
during the last quarter of a century. 

The formation of the American Baptist Educa- 
tion Society, in 1888, was an epoch-making event 
in our educational life. When this pastorate be- 



252 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

gan, the total amount of property and endowment 
belonging to our colleges and theological seminaries 
was not more than three million five hundred thou- 
sand dollars ; to-day it is not less than thirty-six 
million five hundred thousand dollars. The Uni- 
versity of Chicago, promises to be one of the great- 
est, if not the greatest, educational institution in 
America. It is under Baptist control, one of its 
fundamental laws being that two-thirds of its Board 
of Trustees must always be members of Baptist 
churches. It is at the same time the broadest, 
most liberal, and most catholic institution of learn- 
ing on this continent. The result has vindicated 
the wisdom of those who founded our Education 
Society ; its work is one of the noblest achieve- 
ments in our history. It aids worthy schools of 
learning, establishes new schools where they are 
needed, awakens the desire for the highest possible 
education, and places constantly before our young 
men, and especially our ministers, the highest 
standards of attainment. 

Baptists ought to be leaders in every noble edu- 
cational movement. We are not hampered by 
effete creeds ; we are not anchored to mediaeval 
sentiments ; we are not enslaved to hoary tradi- 
tionalism. We believe that the nineteenth century 
is as able to do its own thinking as any century in 
the history of the Christian church. We are dis- 
ciples of truth from whatever quarter it comes and 
by whatsoever messenger it is brought We fear 
no scientific discoveries, if only they bring us ad- 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 253 

ditional truth. We regard many of the creeds of 
the churches as unsightly scaffolds standing around 
the temple of truth. We believe that when these 
creeds fall, the symmetry, splendor, and glory of 
the temple will be the more conspicuous. 

We have ever been the advocates of soul-liberty 
in its largest and divinest privileges and applica- 
tions. In this spirit we have moved forward in the 
founding of schools and colleges. Brown Univer- 
sity was our earliest institution of higher learning, 
being founded in 1764. In the ten years from 
1874 to 1884, we founded twenty-nine institutions ; 
from 1889 to 1894, sixty-two. Our educational 
work is thus gathering force and moving on with 
vigor from year to year. 

The founding of the University of Chicago is 
certainly one of the three greatest events in our 
history as a people. The story reads like a fairy 
tale. The dream of 1890 has become the tran- 
scendent reality of 1895. Here is a university but 
four years old, but with one hundred members on 
its faculty selected from the most famous colleges 
in Europe and America, and with more than one 
thousand students on its rolls. 1 Its doors are never 
closed ; its work goes on in summer as in winter. 
It stands in close affiliation with other colleges and 
professional schools. It has already lifted the 

1 In 1897, according to the "Baptist Year-Book, " this institu- 
tion had 180 instructors; 2,315 students in all departments; 
amount of property, including endowments, $8,625,000; and 
215,000 volumes in the library [Ed.]. 



2 54 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

cause of higher education in every other institution 
of learning in the land. It has raised the salaries 
of professors literally all over the world ; it has 
done more than any other one institution in the 
world to give appropriate pecuniary recognition to 
the profession of teaching. It is located in a city 
which is the commercial capital of a vast empire. 
It has already given an enormously powerful im- 
pulse to higher education, and what its future will 
be neither man nor angel can fully foresee. Its 
honored founder has made his name immortal 
Great institutions of learning are the most per- 
manent creations of man in the world. They are 
more enduring than anything this side of the eter- 
nal throne. It is conceivable that in some great 
political cataclysm the British throne may fall ; but 
it is not conceivable that any human disaster can 
overthrow Oxford and Cambridge. They will stand 
in all the years to come, reflecting in a common 
ray the mingled lights of high learning and holy 
religion. 

Other Baptist laymen might well learn lessons 
from the generosity of the founder of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago. One recently died leaving at least 
ten millions to his family, and leaving but ten thou- 
sand to all causes of God and man. Another re- 
cently died leaving eight millions and absolutely 
nothing to any cause of God or man. Such men 
have made great failures in their acquisition of 
wealth. Such men are not prepared to die. We 
are learning that millionaires have a great mission 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 255 

in life. The problem of the millionaire has practi- 
cally arisen during the period of this present pas- 
torate. The old French motto, noblesse oblige, must 
have its application to the possession of wealth. 
God will hold men responsible for their disposition 
of their great possessions. A wise disposition of 
money requires more talent, and vastly more re- 
ligion, than its rapid acquisition. God multiply 
millionaires among us, if only he shall give them 
the spirit of consecration to the cause of God and 
man. Such consecration takes away all cause of 
criticism from anarchists and socialists ; but the 
hoarding of vast wealth gives some reason for the 
criticisms of anarchism which are muttered in dif- 
ferent parts of our country. May Baptists and all 
other American patriotic Christians move forward 
with large-hearted liberality and with true Christian 
generosity for the support of all institutions founded 
in the interest of higher education, American patri- 
otism, and a true Christianity. 

ESTABLISHMENT IN ALL DEPARTMENTS. 

We to-day pray that God may establish our de- 
nominational work in all its departments. We 
offer this prayer in no narrow or sectarian spirit 
We believe that we stand for certain truths of 
Scripture either entirely neglected, or inadequately 
taught, by other denominations of Christians. We 
hold that no distinct denomination has a right 
to exist except it teach distinctive truths. No 
church ought to be maintained simply out of re- 



256 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

spect to a tradition, however honorable or vener- 
able. Many denominations, were this principle 
practically applied, would at once merge into other 
denominations ; but we stand for great principles 
and distinctive truths. In all the ages of church 
history we have stood for the supremacy of the 
word of God as the authoritative rule of faith and 
practice ; we have stood for a regenerate church- 
membership ; we have stood for soul-liberty in the 
interpretation of the word of God and in the rela- 
tion of men to the State ; that is to say, we have 
stood for the entire separation of Church and State ; 
and we have stood also for the integrity of the or- 
dinances as given by Christ and his apostles. 

Our Baptist fathers witnessed to these truths on 
the rack and at the stake. We have given many 
of our noblest souls as martyrs to the cause of civil 
and religious liberty. We have stained the snows 
on Alpine peaks, and we have enriched the soil in 
Alpine valleys with Baptist blood. Our martyrs 
have given their testimonies by giving their lives in 
Old England and by many forms of suffering in 
New England. They have been imprisoned in 
Virginia and in other States, and evermore the blood 
of the martyrs has been the seed of the church. 
It was not uncommon in Virginia that when Bap- 
tists were observing the ordinance of baptism, ef- 
forts were made not only to throw ridicule on the 
divine ordinance, but to attempt to drown those 
who were thus obedient to Christ. We do not for- 
get the brave Ireland and the Culpeper jail. His 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 257 

preaching through the bars of that jail resulted in 
the conversion of many souls ; and when the jail 
was torn down a Baptist church was erected on its 
ruins. 

About one hundred and fifty years ago, fourteen 
persons were arrested in Saybrook, Conn., simply 
for holding a Baptist meeting ; they were tried, 
fined, and hurried on foot to New London, twenty- 
five miles away. There they were cast into prison 
and suffered many other indignities. About the 
same time Elisha Paine was arrested, tried, and im- 
prisoned for preaching Baptist doctrine in the little 
village of Canterbury, Conn. But he preached 
behind prison bars so that his captives were glad 
to release him. Two young men, members of the 
Baptist church in Canterbury, were students in 
Yale College. While at home on their vacation 
they naturally attended their own church. For this 
offense they were summoned before the college 
authorities on returning, and were reminded that 
the business of Yale College was not to educate 
persons whose principles and practices were sub- 
versive of the visible church of Christ. The of- 
ficers and tutors of the college, according to the 
records, November 19, 1734, adjudged that these 
young men, Ebenezer and John Cleaveland, had 
acted contrary to the rules of the gospel and the 
laws of the colony and the college, in attending 
services in the Baptist church, and that they shall 
be publicly admonished for their fault, and if they 
should refuse to make acknowledgment they shall 



258 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

be expelled from the college. They refused to 
make acknowledgment and were expelled. 

We do not forget the persecutions endured by 
John Clark, Obadiah Holmes, and James Crandall 
because of their advocacy of the doctrine of relig- 
ious liberty and their persistent denial of infant 
baptism as scriptural. When Clark stood at the 
whipping-post, having refused to pay his fine of 
twenty pounds, we are told that some kind-hearted 
person interfered and bought his release with a sum 
of money ; also the fine of five pounds was paid 
for James Crandall, and he was set free ; but 
Obadiah Holmes, a man of broad learning and in- 
vincible will, upon refusal to pay his fine of thirty 
pounds, was so cruelly whipped that for weeks he 
was unable to have rest in his bed except upon his 
knees and elbows. So our fathers suffered for the 
sake of the truth as it is in Jesus. 

The growth of the Calvary Church has been 
marked during the period of the present pastorate. 
The number of members twenty-five years ago to- 
day was two hundred and forty-three ; the number 
to-day is two thousand and forty-nine. During 
that period three thousand two hundred and sev- 
enty-four have been received into the fellowship 
of the church. The population of New York 
twenty-five years ago was nearly one million. The 
number of members in our Baptist churches in this 
city, at that date, was eleven thousand five hundred 
and eighty-nine ; the population to-day is, accord- 
ing to the latest census, about one million eight 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 259 

hundred thousand ; the number of members in 
Baptist churches in the city now, is eighteen thou- 
sand six hundred and eight. It will thus be seen 
that, notwithstanding the fact that we have almost 
no growth from immigration, as do Romanists, 
Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians, and 
notwithstanding the very large emigration from the 
city to Brooklyn and other places in the vicinity, 
we have about kept pace with the growth of our 
rapidly growing city. When this pastorate was 
begun twenty-five years ago the population of the 
United States was about thirty-eight millions ; the 
number of Baptists at that time was about one 
million five hundred thousand. The population of 
the country to-day (1895) is perhaps sixty-seven 
millions ; but the total membership in Baptist 
churches to-day, not including seven or eight 
bodies that are Baptists, but not in full fellowship 
with us, is three million six hundred thirty-seven 
thousand four hundred and twenty-one. The popu- 
lation of the United States will not double probably 
for ten years more, but the number of Baptists 
has increased more than two and a half times dur- 
ing this period. 

It is thus seen that we are growing more rapidly 
than is the population of the country, notwith- 
standing the tidal waves of immigration that have 
rolled into it during these last twenty-five years. 
During the last twenty years — not to go so far back 
as twenty-five — the number of Regular Baptist 
churches has increased from twenty thousand four 



26o CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

hundred and fifty-eight to thirty-seven thousand 
nine hundred and ten. The number of baptisms 
reported in the last "Year-Book" (1895) is two 
hundred and five thousand eight hundred and fifty- 
seven as against one hundred and seventy-six thou- 
sand and seventy-seven for the previous year. This 
is the largest number of baptisms, by an enormous 
margin, ever reported by us in a single year ; the 
number of ministers has increased from twelve 
thousand five hundred and thirty to twenty-seven 
thousand and ninety-one. We have thus more than 
doubled the number of ministers during the last 
twenty years. If we were to add the statistics of 
other Baptist bodies not affiliated with us, the gains 
would be still larger. If we go back for a century 
or more we shall find that in 1784 there was one 
Baptist to ninety-four of the population ; in 1 8 1 2, 
one to forty-two ; in 1 840, one to thirty ; in 1 860, 
one to thirty-one; in 1880, one to twenty-three; 
and in 1890, one to twenty-one. 

Some of these facts may be summed up so as to 
give a better picture for the actual condition of our 
churches and of their relative growth. We have a 
larger Baptist membership in the United States by 
one million twenty-two thousand two hundred and 
seven than we had ten years ago. There has thus 
been a net gain of more than one hundred and two 
thousand each year for the last ten years ; we also 
have ten thousand two hundred and nine more 
churches than we had ten years ago ; this is a gain 
of more than one thousand churches each year. 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 26 1 

We have eight thousand aud twenty-seven more 
ordained ministers than we had ten years ago ; this 
is an increase of over eight hundred a year. Now 
and then a pastor of a Baptist church leaves our 
denomination for some other body ; but we have 
averaged an addition of more than two to our min- 
isterial force every day during the last ten years. 
If we except the Romanists it will be found that 
one-fifth of all the church-members in the United 
States are Baptists. More than one-sixth of all the 
Sunday-schools are under our denominational care, 
and more than one-seventh of all the Sunday- 
school scholars in the United States are in Baptist 
Sunday-schools. God has wonderfully blessed our 
work in all these respects during the last twenty- 
five years, and especially during the last ten years. 
We are, in all our interpretations of Scripture 
and in all our creedal relations, in the most perfect 
sympathy with the advanced thought of the hour. 
We may safely predict an increase of ten thousand 
Baptist ministers during the next ten years, and 
also of at least ten thousand new churches. In no 
spirit of boastfulness, but with profound gratitude 
to God for his manifold blessings in all these re- 
spects, are these wonderful facts given. There are 
some financial facts to which attention ought to be 
called and which are equally encouraging. The 
value of our church property is now eighty million 
two hundred and thirty-five thousand and thirty- 
four dollars. In 1891, we organized the B. Y. P. U. 
of America. This movement has already attained 



262 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

vast proportions. It holds annual conventions 
of great size and of corresponding enthusiasm. 
But the Christian Endeavor Societies in Baptist 
churches still continue their organizations. There 
is no opposition between the two bodies. The 
Baptist Congress was formed in 1 892. It has been 
commended for the vigor and candor of its discus- 
sions. The trials for heresy in the Episcopal and 
Presbyterian churches show the value of our Baptist 
polity. The nature of our organization makes it 
impossible that we should have a great and dis- 
tracting trial for heresy as in some of the other 
denominations. We are held together apparently 
by the loosest of bonds, but as a matter of fact we 
are bound together more securely and have vastly 
more unity in opinion and practice than any other 
denomination in America. God is with us in 
wonderful ways, leading us forward in all lines of 
evangelical work and rewarding us with hopeful 
growth because of loyalty to his will as revealed in 
his word. 

There are marked and hopeful drifts among us. 
Nothing is more certain than that we have a larger, 
deeper, higher, and wider view of our relations to 
God and to one another than we had twenty-five 
years ago. We hold with no less tenacity to the 
Scripture as the only authoritative rule of faith and 
practice. We stand loyal to Jesus Christ as the 
only King in Zion. We recognize no bishop but 
the pastor of the local church ; no priest but Jesus 
Christ our great High-Priest, and the priesthood of 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 263 

all true Christians. We shall continue to demand 
civil and religious liberty ; we do not wish to waste 
time in controversy with brethren of other names. 
We are determined to hold the truth in love and 
to manifest it with charity. Our preaching to-day 
is not so theological as it was a generation ago, but 
is more simple, more practical, and more Christly. 
We are more disposed to declare the love than to 
magnify the wrath of God. There are fewer revivals 
among us than there were in former days ; but 
many churches are never without the spirit of 
revival, and all our churches have larger yearly 
additions than they had, taken year by year, during 
the prevalence of great and sensational revivals. 
We believe in a larger liberty than we did a gen- 
eration ago in the form of services in our churches. 
The desire on the part of many is for a richer, more 
ornate, more worshipful, and more scriptural serv- 
ice. The people have a right to participate in the 
public worship of God's house. 

We are leading as never before in the higher 
education of the country, having given during the 
past few years more money to this object than any 
other denomination in America. The standard of 
learning in our theological seminaries is vastly 
higher than it was a quarter of a century ago. 
God is leading us as a people to the high places of 
honor, by leading us into lowly forms of service. 
We are at peace among ourselves as a local church 
and as a great denomination. It is not too much 
to say that more than one-sixth of the entire popu- 



264 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

lation of these United States are members or ad- 
herents of Baptist churches. Both the Methodist 
and the Baptist churches of America to-day stand 
associated with a larger proportion of the total 
population than does the Roman Church. Our 
religious press and publication houses have made 
remarkable progress during the last twenty-five 
years. And yet as a people, we have only begun 
to appreciate our great possibilities. The following 
table gives in a summary way many of the facts 
already detailed, and some additional facts which 
will be of interest. According to the " Baptist 
Year-Book" (1895), just published, the statistics of 
denominational progress in the United States as 
indicated by figures are as follows, the tables for 
the years 1894 and 1895 being contrasted : l 







1895. 


1894. 


Associations I »53° 


1,498 


Ordained ministers . . . • 




27,091 


25>354 


Churches 




37,910 


38,122 


Baptisms 




205,857 


176,077 


Total membership .... 




. 3* 637,421 


3,496,988 


Sunday-schools 




22,016 


20,838 


Pupils in Sunday-schools . 




. 1,500,834 


i,43o,933 


Value of church property . 




$80,285,034 


$78,605,769 


Contributions to missions . 




$1,138,059 


$1,467,293 


Total contributions and expenses $1 1,672, 691 


$12,560,713 



1 The figures for 1897, according to the "Year-Book," are as fol- 
lows : Associations, 1,551 ; ordained ministers, 27,774 ; churches, 
40,064; baptisms, 176,058; total membership, 3,720,235; Sun- 
day-schools, 23,302; pupils in Sunday-schools, 1,779,886; value 
of church property, $81,648,246; contributions to missions, $1,- 
172,909.42 ; total contributions and expenses, $11,755,118.58. 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 265 

The facts already stated have an interesting re- 
lation to the growth of American Protestantism as a 
whole. The period since 1850 has been one of 
severe strain upon our evangelical churches, because 
of the great activity of rationalism, materialism, and 
spiritism, and especially because of our large and 
often undesirable immigration. The statistics quoted 
by Dr. Daniel Dorchester, in the last edition of 
his " Religious Progress," show that the evangelical 
churches have more than kept pace with the growth 
of the population, even during this period. 

In the thirty years under consideration, the whole popula- 
tion increased one hundred and seventy per cent., but the 
communicants of these churches increased two hundred and 
ninety per cent. , or a half faster than the population. And 
during the severe strain from 1870 to 1890, while the popu- 
lation increased sixty-two per cent, the communicants in- 
creased one hundred and seven per cent. The total increase 
of communicants from 1850 to 1880 was six million five hun- 
dred and thirty-five thousand nine hundred and eighty-five, 
or more than twice as large as the increase in the fifty years 
from 1800 to 1850. It has usually been estimated that at 
the close of the third century the number of Christians in 
the world was five millions. In the United States the in- 
crease in thirty years was greater than the total increase in 
the first three centuries of the Christian era, and the figures 
appear to show that the growth of evangelical Christianity 
in this country in ninety years exceeded the growth of Chris- 
tianity in the first eight centuries after Christ by an excess 
of more than eighteen millions. 

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SPIRITUAL WORK. 

We pray God to establish our distinctively spir- 
itual work in our own church, our denomination, 



266 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

and our beloved country. No church is truly 
prosperous except God be using it in the conver- 
sion of individuals and in the edification of saints. 
Its pews may be filled with people and its treasury 
with money, but it is not really a prosperous church 
of Christ unless it is the means in God's hands of 
winning men to Christ. This church has never 
been the church of the rich exclusively ; nor of the 
poor exclusively ; it has aimed to be the church of 
the rich and poor. It has never been a revival 
church in the technical sense of that term ; but it 
has ever striven to be a "vival" church. It has 
constantly striven for the conversion and edification 
of men and women, the two processes going on 
side by side. Nothing is more certain than that a 
great change has come over the spirit of the world 
within the last twenty years in its relation to relig- 
ious truth. A quarter of a century ago it seemed 
as if materialism, what Carlyle roughly called " a 
gospel of dirt," was to dominate every department 
of scientific thought. That day, however, has 
passed away, and it is not likely to return. There 
is now a markedly changed attitude on the part of 
scientific men toward Christianity. They are mani- 
festing a spirit of reverence toward religious truth 
entirely unknown a generation ago. They may 
not have adopted the old dogmatic statements of 
Christian experience and Bible doctrine ; but they 
certainly have a deeper perception of the relations 
of men to God and to one another than was for- 
merly the case. 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 26/ 

Two books have recently been published which 
illustrate the tendency of which we are speaking ; 
the first is that by Benjamin Kidd. This striking 
book is widely read and earnestly discussed ; it 
shows the changed attitude which many scientific 
men now maintain toward religious questions. 
Doubtless there are still scientific men who mani- 
fest a spirit of arrogant agnosticism, but the num- 
ber is very much smaller than it was three decades 
ago. The other book is by the Right Hon. Arthur 
J. Balfour, and is entitled "The Foundations of 
Belief." This is in many respects a remarkable 
book. It is true that Professor Fairbairn has se- 
verely criticised some of its features, but neverthe- 
less it is a book which is destined to exercise a 
profound influence on the most cultivated minds of 
our generation. There is, it is not too much to say, 
a religious revival among literary men and scientists. 
There is now no occasion for Christian people even 
to seem to be panic-stricken, as many were a gener- 
ation ago. Agnosticism is not now to have every- 
thing its own way. When this pastorate was be- 
gun there was really a period of religious depres- 
sion ; it was a time when the intolerance of science 
was a thousand-fold greater than were ever the in- 
tolerance and bigotry of religion. It was then al- 
most believed that no man of practical intelligence 
could be an evangelical Christian. The air was 
filled by the manufactured thunder of scientific 
drums. It was a time when many forms of science 
were skeptical so far as the deepest experiences of 



268 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

the heart and the highest possibilities of the im- 
mortal life were concerned. 

Now, however, as has already been suggested, 
the tendency of the best modern thought is toward 
Christian theism. Mr. Balfour's great intellectual 
power places him in the first rank of British states- 
men. In his interest in religious discussions he is 
the true successor of Gladstone. Doubtless he is 
himself destined for the premiership. These are 
stirring words of his which he writes from a purely 
philosophical point of view : 

What is needed is such a living faith in God* s relation- 
ship to man as shall leave no place for that helpless resent- 
ment against the appointed order so apt to rise within us at 
the sight of undeserved pain. And this faith is possessed 
by those who vividly realize the Christian form of theism. 
. . . Among the needs ministered to by Christianity are 
some which increase rather than diminish with the growth 
of knowledge and the progress of science ; this religion is 
therefore no mere reform, appropriate only to a vanished 
epoch in the history of culture and civilization, but a devel- 
opment of theism now more necessary to us than ever. 

He frankly asserts his belief that there is better 
evidence for the existence of God than there is for 
the material world in which we are placed. The 
whole book is a longing and loving search for the 
living God who controls the affairs of men. He 
affirms that there is no ground for quarrel between 
theology and science, but that science itself presup- 
poses the existence of God, and that without this in- 
dispensable hypothesis we can understand nothing of 



ESTABLISHING OUR WORK 269 

science. It is a most hopeful sign when a man of 
his political position, intellectual ability, and brilliant 
social and political prospects writes such a volume 
as this. If he lives, he is likely to be as conspicu- 
ous a figure in English history as the great Glad- 
stone. He is beyond question the ablest parlia- 
mentary leader in the House of Commons. In one 
political party he is idolized, and in the other he is 
respected alike for character and ability. This 
brilliant debater, able politician, and successful ad- 
ministrator now appears as a thoughtful essayist 
and a religious teacher. In this volume he unites 
judicial serenity with dashing humor, and earnest 
faith with equally earnest inquiry. He illumines 
the dreary wilderness of metaphysics with the sun- 
shine of genius and the calm light of faith. The 
pendulum has begun to swing back to the Bible, 
to faith, to Christ. Already the music of the open- 
ing century falls upon our ears ; it is sweet music. 
Atheism, materialism, agnosticism, and other de- 
structive forms of error of an earlier day, have 
proved utterly weak and worthless. Once more 
Christ has ascended his throne, and truth is coming 
down from its cross. The music of the coming 
years is tender with love, bright with hope, and 
divine with trustful faith. 

No words of mine can express the tenderness I 
feel toward the noble men and women who have 
gone from this church militant to the church tri- 
umphant. Their memory is a precious legacy to 
this church of Christ. Their names will live in our 



27O CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

hearts so long as these hearts continue to beat. 
Neither can any words of mine adequately describe 
the tender regard cherished for many still among 
the living. We have worked together amid joy 
and sorrow. Our prayers, our tears, and our songs 
have been united in common experiences of trial 
and triumph. We have striven to honor Jesus 
Christ in our work as members of the Calvary 
Church. We have sought to bring men into lov- 
ing obedience to him as Prophet, Priest, and King. 
We have nothing whereof to boast ; we have every- 
thing for which to be grateful to the loving kind- 
ness and tender mercy of our Father in heaven. 

We now look thankfully to the past, and hopefully 
to the future. God alone knows what is before us 
in our personal, family, and church life. We know 
that he will never leave nor forsake us, and that 
whether our years be many or few, we shall con- 
tinue to enjoy his presence and blessing, and when 
life shall cease we shall cast our crowns at his feet, 
and rejoice in his completed salvation throughout 
eternity. Our best work may never be fully estab- 
lished here. God grant that it may be such work 
that we shall be willing to meet it at the judgment- 
seat of Christ. May each one of us hear him say 
at the last : " Well done, thou good and faithful serv- 
ant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I 
will make thee ruler over many things ; enter thou 
into the joy of thy Lord." 



XI 

THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 1 

THE ability to organize a church for effective 
work is as rare as it is important. Like all 
Christian graces, however, this ability may be ac- 
quired to a greater or less degree. It is vastly im- 
portant for the young pastor fully to appreciate its 
worth and earnestly to strive for its possession. 
The success of many pastors is largely due to their 
ability to organize and to inspire their people for 
vigorously aggressive and wisely conservative work. 
The work of a great church is, in an important 
sense, a gigantic business enterprise ; sanctified 
business methods are absolutely necessary. 

The great need to-day in political and mercantile 
organizations, as well as in the church of God, is 
inspiring leaders. Thousands are ready to follow 
wherever a wise and courageous man may lead the 
way. Much of the power of organization necessary 

1 The substance of this and the two following papers has been 
given in familiar addresses in several Baptist theological seminaries. 
Many references then made in the comparative privacy of the class- 
room are now necessarily omitted. To address ministerial students 
on the general topic considered was felt to be a delicate and diffi- 
cult task ; the same feeling exists, and in a greater degree, in at- 
tempting to put the oral suggestions into printed form. The aim 
will still be especially to address the students in the theological 
seminaries and the younger brethren in the pastorate. 

271 



272 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

to a man who is at the head of a great mercantile 
house, or to a successful leader of men in political 
life, or to the president of a great railroad, is neces- 
sary to effective leadership in the church of God. 
The men who can thus lead are men of genius. 
God's greatest work is not carried on by simple- 
tons. Paul, Augustine, and Calvin would have 
been men of great mark in any walk of life. Lu- 
ther, Wesley, and Whitfield were kings even among 
the kingly men of the earth. Listening senates 
and admiring thousands would have been held by 
the spell of their entrancing eloquence and led by 
their rare sagacity had they given themselves up to 
political leadership. We have elsewhere empha- 
sized the thought that Mr. Spurgeon might be 
Prime Minister of England, in another sense than 
that in which he is "the prime minister" to-day, 
had he given his attention to political life. Men 
who are wise in winning souls are men who would 
bring things to pass mightily in any department of 
life's endeavor. In religious as in secular work, a 
chief element of any man's success is his ability 
wisely to organize the forces at his command. 

I. In emphasizing the importance of wisely or- 
ganizing a church, it is to be remarked that every 
young pastor should see that his Board of Trustees 
is legally elected. Gentlemen of legal attainments, 
who have given some attention to the subject, in- 
form the writer that there are scores of churches in 
the State of New York, not to speak of other 
States, whose trustees have never been elected ac- 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 273 

cording to the forms of law. Such trustees, strictly- 
speaking, are not able either to buy, hold, or sell 
church property. Every piece of property under 
their control is liable to be lost to the church and 
to the denomination. This is certainly a very seri- 
ous state of affairs ; and it is certainly worthy of the 
most careful examination. Too much property 
bought by denominational money has been already 
squandered. 

It may be said that it is not the pastor's business 
to look after the secular affairs of the church. But 
it will be admitted that in some churches there is 
no one else qualified to look after these interests. 
When there are men so qualified the wise pastor 
will neither wish nor need to care for secular mat- 
ters. The true pastor cannot be indifferent to any 
interests of the church over which God has placed 
him. He dare not run the risk of seeing his 
people's money diverted from the purpose for 
which it was contributed ; such neglect upon his 
part would be little less than criminal. What shall 
he do in order to serve these interests ? Let him 
ascertain under what law his church is organized, 
and especially what are the requirements of that 
law as relating to the election of trustees. If there 
is a competent lawyer in the church or congrega- 
tion, his services ought to be secured. Often the 
work which a lawyer may do in this way will 
prove to be a blessing to his soul, if he is a Chris- 
tian ; and if he is not a Christian it may be one of 
the means of awakening him to his duty toward 

s 



2^4 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Christ The result of such an examination will 
show that in some States there are several laws ac- 
cording to any one of which the church, in its legal 
relations, has been organized. To discover that 
point is the chief end of the inquiry. The legal 
relations which the church sustains cannot be over- 
looked ; for while a church is a spiritual body, still, 
so far as its relations to property are concerned, it 
has its legal aspects. 

According to most of the laws under which 
churches are organized, trustees are entrusted with 
much power. Their control over the property is 
well-nigh supreme. They can buy and sell, and 
they can make great changes in the church build- 
ing with almost absolute authority. It is easy for 
pastors and religious officers in a church to come 
into conflict with trustees, and such a conflict is as 
hurtful when it is brought about as it is easy to 
bring it about. Here the utmost wisdom must 
control. Where the spirit of Christ prevails in the 
church, and where men possessed of that spirit are 
on the Board of Trustees, that body may not insist 
on the full exercise of the powers which the law 
confers. Under some laws the church is not able 
to appoint extra meetings, to light fires, or to con- 
sume gas in the church edifice without the consent 
of the trustees, should they insist on the full exer- 
cise of their authority. It would be a remarkable 
Board that would insist on its rights to such a de- 
gree as this ; but there are remarkable Boards. 

Shall any but members of a church worshiping 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 275 

in a given place be elected as trustees? That 
question has often been asked. According to the 
laws under which some churches are organized, the 
body electing trustees is not the church, strictly 
speaking, but those known as corporators ; this 
designation includes all persons of full age who 
have been contributors for at least one year to the 
support of the gospel in that church. This lan- 
guage is sufficiently vague to admit of misunder- 
standing. How much must a man contribute, or 
rather how little may he contribute, and still be 
qualified to vote? Other churches are so organized 
that none but their own members can be trustees. 
We do not here insist on making this a universal 
law. There are often excellent men in a congre- 
gation who are not members of the church, but 
who could be useful to an unusual degree as trus- 
tees. Electing them to this office often deepens 
their interest in the work of the church, and in 
many instances has led them to accept Christ and 
to join the church. In determining this matter 
much must depend upon the character of the men 
who may be available as trustees ; no rule can be 
laid down which is of universal application. What 
we insist upon is that the law under which the 
church is organized should be known to the pastor 
at least, and that in the election of trustees it should 
be rigidly observed. Its rigid observance will apply 
to reading from the pulpit the proper number of 
times and at the right dates the notice of a call for 
the election of trustees, and the clear statement of 



276 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

the qualification of voters. It will also include the 
methods of voting, so far as announcing the open- 
ing and closing of the polls, and all matters per- 
taining thereto, are concerned. In regard to every 
detail the law should be observed to the very 
letter. Such observance will protect the property, 
and may prevent serious church quarrels. We 
have known several sad church difficulties and 
painful litigations grow out of irregularity in the 
election of trustees. 

Pastors must give attention to this matter. Many 
are sadly ignorant of their duty in this respect. 
Many have not appreciated its importance. Our 
theological seminaries have failed to call the atten- 
tion of their students to matters of this sort, and 
young men are left to stumble along as best they 
can during the earlier years of their ministry. 
Many questions touching this subject are often put 
to pastors of experience, thus showing that their 
younger brethren need and desire information on 
this subject. Some thoroughly well-informed law- 
yer could do great service to pastors and churches 
by giving a paper in the public prints, in simple 
language, free from unnecessary legal technicalities 
and verbosity, containing a full statement of the 
rights of trustees, the laws governing their election, 
and other matters pertaining to the subject. Per- 
haps this paper may be the channel through which 
such information may be given to many of our stu- 
dents and younger pastors. A portion of this book 
could not be put to better use. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 2JJ 

2. The election of deacons next claims our at- 
tention in discussing the organization of a church. 
In the organization of a new church, their election 
would naturally be considered before the election 
of trustees ; but where young men are called to 
churches already existing they will, of course, find 
deacons already in office. We have therefore 
placed their election second on this list. The suc- 
cess of a church must necessarily depend largely 
on the character of its deacons ; they should be 
the pastor's most affectionate friends and efficient 
helpers. We ought not to make less but more of 
this office. It is common, in some quarters, to 
speak slightingly of deacons, but the practice is as 
objectionable as it is common. The familiar say- 
ing, still attributed to Mr. Spurgeon, although he 
has taken pains to deny that he ever uttered it, is 
grossly unjust to the average deacon. There are 
unfortunately bad deacons ; and there are unfor- 
tunately bad pastors. But the average deacon will, 
we are sure, compare favorably in his office with 
the average pastor in his office. The office of dea- 
con is to be honored. If we exalt our conception 
of the office we shall do something to ennoble the 
men who fill it. 

With the history of the election of the first dea- 
cons, as given in the New Testament, we are all 
somewhat familiar. "The seven men of honest 
report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom," were 
selected to perform service in earthly things for 
the needy members of the church. They were 



2^8 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

not, strictly speaking, religious officers ; no doubt 
many of their duties, in the early history of the 
church, included some of those now performed by 
trustees. They were elected to give the apostles 
greater freedom from care regarding temporal 
things, that they might "give themselves continu- 
ally to prayer and the ministry of the word." The 
deacons were not an order in the ministry, although 
some of their number were successful preachers. 
Their special duty was to distribute the alms of 
the church. 

It does not seem necessary, in this paper, to dis- 
cuss the duties to be performed and the character 
to be possessed by deacons. It is fair to assume 
that the majority of readers are sufficiently familiar 
with this branch of the general subject, the infor- 
mation being fully given in the New Testament 
itself. Practical questions, however, often arise and 
press themselves upon the attention of young pas- 
tors. How many deacons ought a church to have? 
At its organization it would naturally have two at 
least ; for every additional hundred members, it 
would seem fitting that there should be an addi- 
tional deacon elected. There is nothing in the 
New Testament which would limit the number to 
seven, although as is well known that was a sacred 
number among the Hebrews ; but this number 
was not commanded at the time of the election 
of the first deacons. This number was sufficiently 
large to secure the faithful discharge of the special 
duty for which they were appointed. There is no 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 279 

intimation that they were expected to preach ; they 
were not an " order of the clergy." 

In the Jewish synagogue, men were set apart to 
care for the poor, and that office in the synagogue 
probably suggested the diaconate in the church. 
Shall they be elected for life ? This is a fair ques- 
tion. We should answer it in the affirmative, as a 
rule. There may, however, be good reasons for 
electing deacons for a limited period. Where a 
church is situated in a new community with a small 
membership, and with no one thoroughly fitted for 
the office, and every prospect of soon having new 
men who would be fitted for that office, it would 
seem to be the part of wisdom to elect deacons for 
a brief period, say for three years. Trustees are so 
elected ; superintendents are elected for a limited 
time, and sometimes, unfortunately, pastors are so 
elected. Under the circumstances named, there 
can be no valid reasons against electing deacons for 
a limited period. In some churches, great changes 
in intellectual culture, in social standing, and in 
general efficiency, take place in a few years by the 
introduction of new members. The men elected 
to the office of deacon may thus become manifestly 
unfit for the position. It is eminently fitting that 
this change of circumstances should be recognized 
and the worth of the new men be utilized. If the 
deacons have been elected under a time limit, 
changes can be made without giving offense, and 
greatly to the advantage of all the interests of the 
church. 



280 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The duty of electing young men to this honor- 
able office is earnestly emphasized. The idea that 
none but men of advanced age and antiquated 
ideas should be deacons is an utter mistake. It is 
not a question of age, but of character, efficiency, 
and consecration. There were in John's days 
young men who were strong ; young men in whom 
the word of God was abiding ; young men who had 
overcome the wicked one. This was a peerless tri- 
umph ; this is a matchless eulogy. Put by the side 
of this the proudest honors of earth and they fade 
into utter insignificance. Thank God, there are still, 
in the church of Christ, young men who are strong ; 
young men in whom God's word abides ; young 
men who have overcome the wicked one ! Though 
they are in the world, they are not of the world. 
They are girded with strength, armed with the 
shield of faith, the girdle of truth, and the breast- 
plate of righteousness ; they are panoplied with the 
whole armor of God. There are, in many churches, 
young men with unsullied names and with marked 
business ability — men who walk with their heads 
among the stars. Such young men should be rec- 
ognized ; their influence over other young men in 
the church and out of it is simply immeasurable. 
We need the young men, and we need the old 
men ; neither class should be opposed to the other. 
The church has room for the enthusiasm, hopeful- 
ness, and enterprise of the young, as well as for the 
ripened wisdom, the matured experience, and mel- 
lowed beauty of the old. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 28 1 

Shall deacons be ordained ? An examination of 
the methods employed in apostolic churches leads 
to the conclusion that deacons ought to be ordained. 
It was customary once in some of our Baptist 
churches to submit all who were received into the 
church to a form of ordination. When members 
were welcomed at the communion table, it was 
usual for some pastors to lay hands on the head of 
each person. We know that it was common in 
this way to set apart those who were appointed to 
the office of deacon. This act was not supposed 
to impart any special power, but simply to indicate 
that those thus set apart had received from God the 
necessary qualifications for their office. The seven 
deacons who were elected first to this office, though 
chosen by the church, yet had the hands of the 
apostles solemnly laid upon them. The idea is to 
make more of this office, and not less. It has been 
honored of God ; it should be honored of men. 

It is true that in many of our city churches dea- 
cons are not able to render much help to the pastor. 
Where they live at long distances from their places 
of business it is impossible for them to give much 
time to their work as deacons. Those who are 
earnestly engaged in engrossing forms of business 
cannot give much time and thought to the work 
of the church. Those who have a little more lei- 
sure are burdened with social claims, and with vari- 
ous forms of religious work upon committees in 
connection with our denominational societies. It 
thus comes to pass that in the hurried life of our 



282 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

great cities but little direct personal work can be 
done even by the most devoted deacons. But 
even under these circumstances there is still for 
them a wide sphere of usefulness in meetings for 
prayer, for inquiry, and for counsel. Many of our 
most experienced pastors give it as their deliberate 
conviction that they have never had warmer friends 
nor more willing helpers than they have found 
among their deacons. The office honored by 
apostolic ordination, honored by the gratitude of 
thousands of pastors, and honored by the benedic- 
tion of God, is not to be lightly esteemed by any 
pastor or any member of the church. 

3. In the next place, the importance of or- 
ganizing a committee, to be called "the advisory 
committee," is to be emphasized. 

In some churches this committee is called " the 
prudential committee." But this name is not suf- 
ficiently specific ; and, furthermore, it suggests the 
necessity of a certain sort of espionage, as if some 
one were determined upon doing something very 
imprudent. There can be no better name than 
that of advisory committee. This name exactly 
indicates its character. It possesses no legislative 
power ; it is simply the instrument of the church 
acting along lines already indicated by the church, 
or suggesting lines along which the church may act. 
This committee may well be composed of the dea- 
cons and the clerk ex officio, and of a number of 
brethren who are in course of training to become 
deacons. It ought also to have in its number some 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 283 

members of the Board of Trustees. They will be 
able correctly to report to that body the recom- 
mendations of this committee, so far as they relate 
to questions affecting the secular affairs of the 
church ; friction will thus be avoided, and harmony 
of action secured. In this committee there ought 
to be representatives of all classes in the church. 
This method of selection would give every division 
of the church, as to social position, intellectual cul- 
ture, and spiritual efficiency, its proper representa- 
tion. This is sometimes a necessity, in order to 
prevent jealousy and to avoid friction. It has been 
found well to elect members for a period of three 
years, the office of a certain number expiring at 
the end of each year, and others then being elected 
to take the places thus made vacant. In this way 
there is always an opportunity to give recognition 
to new and efficient members who come, in the 
meantime, into the church. This, indeed, is one of 
the uses of this committee. It gives recognition 
and appreciation to men who may be fitted to 
occupy positions between the office of trustee and 
deacon. 

This committee is the pastor's cabinet, his body- 
guard, his confidential counselors. The pastor, if 
a wise man, will apparently do nothing of himself; 
he will work entirely through this committee. All 
new business which is brought before the church 
ought to come through this channel. The pastor 
will then be relieved of much responsibility and 
saved from an equal amount of criticism. If he 



284 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

has less praise he will have still less blame. He 
apparently is nothing anywhere, while virtually he 
may be, in a sense, almost everything everywhere. 
If he has from ten to twenty of his bravest, most 
intelligent, and most consecrated brethren stand 
about him, no arrow of criticism can reach him 
until it has passed through them. There will be 
times in the history of any church when this con- 
sideration will be vastly important to any pastor. 
While this body is purely advisory its advice will 
have great moral weight. If the committee is 
carefully selected, no average church will be likely 
earnestly to oppose its unanimous recommenda- 
tions ; and the committee ought never to make a 
recommendation in which it was not unanimous. 

These recommendations, therefore, should be 
especially deliberate, considerate, and Christian. 
The sense of responsibility in making recommenda- 
tions necessarily produces conservatism in coming 
to conclusions. All matters of new business, the 
hearing of experiences, the receiving and granting 
of letters, and especially all matters of discipline, 
must first come before this committee, and through 
this channel be introduced into the church. There 
are many cases of discipline in which matters of 
great delicacy require prolonged, patient, and con- 
fidential consideration. There are times when such 
subjects ought not for a moment to be discussed 
in all their details before any mixed assembly. 
Times there are when such discussion is absolutely 
out of place before boys and girls, who form a con- 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 285 

siderable part of the membership of many of our 
churches. Many matters of discipline can be 
wisely settled without bringing them before the 
church for general discussion. Scores of cases are 
known where adjustments have been made and 
painful alienations reconciled through the inter- 
vention of this committee, while all publicity was 
avoided. The introduction of these subjects in 
open church meetings might have alienated families, 
brought great reproach upon churches and, through 
the newspapers, scandal upon the cause of Christ. 
One's heart is sickened at the thought of the need- 
lessness as well as the wickedness of the average 
church quarrel. 

All matters' of ordinary business should be ma- 
tured in this committee, so that wise recommenda- 
tions could be made to the church at its regular 
meeting. Often business meetings of the church 
destroy the sweetness and spirituality of many of 
our best prayer meetings. When subjects are 
brought into the church without previously matured 
deliberation, general discussions arise, and often ac- 
rimonious debates ensue. Sharp words are spoken 
regarding matters of very little importance ; matters 
so trivial that in themselves they are unworthy of 
serious discussion may yet occasion warm words 
between brethren, and, perhaps, cause painful 
alienations and even disruptions in our churches. 
There are men who, for the most part, are pos- 
sessed of a dumb spirit in meetings for prayer and 
conference, who yet can speak earnestly and fer- 



286 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

vently for a quarter of an hour or more on some 
unimportant topic in the church meetings. Numer- 
ous church meetings are snares of the enemy ; they 
are entirely unnecessary. To give a whole even- 
ing, as is often done in some churches, to the or- 
dinary routine business of the average church, is to 
waste much valuable time and to incur serious, 
positive danger. Were matters thoroughly matured 
in the advisory committee meeting, the business 
meeting of the church could be disposed of in a 
few minutes. Churches receiving scores of mem- 
bers, contributing thousands of dollars, and engaged 
in various benevolent enterprises, requiring much 
thought and involving large outlay, are known to 
limit their monthly business meetings to ten or 
fifteen minutes at the close of an ordinary prayer 
meeting. We earnestly affirm that the loose, dis- 
jointed, immatured methods so often seen in the 
business meetings of some churches are a reproach 
to our common sense and are a challenge to the 
worst elements of our poor, human nature. On 
this subject we could speak with warmth, almost 
amounting to vehemence, of the folly of the 
methods so often pursued. Freedom of discussion 
is the right of every member, but liberty is not 
license. To turn a church meeting into an arena 
for acrimonious debate is the height of folly, if not 
of crime. What pitiful instances every reader has 
known ! God forgive our stupidity ! 

But, is such a committee " Baptistic " ? Is it 
not an introduction of an unduly Presbyterial ele 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 287 

ment into our churches? We have a right to 
what is good, even though other denominations 
adopt somewhat similar methods. It is surely al- 
ways the privilege of a Baptist church, by its own 
free vote, to delegate a part of its work to a com- 
mittee of its choice. Surely it is " Baptistic " to 
desire and to receive good advice. Whatever, in 
a matter of mere expediency, bears the unmistak- 
able stamp of sanctified common sense, and is not 
contrary to New Testament teaching, ought to be 
observed by us. That this committee bears that 
stamp, the testimony of hundreds of Baptists and 
the history of many churches emphatically affirm. 
Is there any authority in the word of God for such 
a committee as this ? That is the true question 
for Baptists to ask and answer. There is at least a 
suggestion found in Gal. 2 : 2 which clearly bears 
upon this point. Here we see that the Apostle 
Paul privately, or as the word might be rendered, 
severally, took counsel of brethren " which were of 
reputation." Doubtless there were good reasons 
why the apostle sought for this private interview 
with representative men in Jerusalem. It is certain 
that the interview was not before a promiscuous 
assembly ; it does not seem even to have been be- 
fore all the apostles, but simply in a private man- 
ner with a few of the recognized leaders. He 
wished them to understand clearly the state of the 
case before the matter became the subject of public 
discussion. It was greatly important to decide 
whether the rites of the Jews were to be imposed 



288 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

on converts from the Gentiles. This was the chief 
point on which advice was sought, and not whether 
the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles ; on 
that point full revelation had been given previously 
to the Apostle Peter. The Jews were warmly 
attached to their ancient customs ; and the attach- 
ment continued even after they had embraced the 
Christian faith. It was a delicate matter, there- 
fore, even to suggest that it was now no longer 
necessary to observe these customs. If a matter 
so delicate were discussed before a promiscuous 
assembly, great excitement would necessarily have 
resulted. In this private conference the Apostle 
Paul could much more readily explain his motives 
and emphasize his reasons. 

It was also most important that a few of the 
representative men should be made to understand 
clearly Paul's position, that their influence might 
be used to prevent misunderstanding, and probably 
alienations. He therefore arranged for this private 
interview. These brethren were his cabinet, his 
advisers, virtually his advisory committee. Exam- 
ining the history, we see clearly that the course 
pursued contributed to a happy solution of this 
vexed problem. All ground for discussion, it must 
be admitted, was not removed, for when the matter 
came to be submitted to the apostles and leaders, 
as we see by Acts 15:7, there were some of the 
sect of the Pharisees who still maintained that the 
Gentiles must keep the law of Moses ; and but for 
the wise precaution of the apostle in calling about 



THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH 289 

him that advisory committee, no one can predict 
what the issue of a more public discussion might 
have been. In this interview "with them which 
were of reputation," Peter and James had all their 
difficulties removed and their convictions clarified. 
When the public assembly was held, they were 
able to submit views which brought the whole 
controversy to a speedy termination. The meeting 
of the advisory committee was one of the most 
marked illustrations of the prudence which we so 
often find in the life of Paul. It is always a dan- 
gerous thing to discuss differences of a delicate 
nature when the passions and prejudices of a mixed 
audience are aroused. The truth of this statement 
many of our churches know to their great sorrow 
and to the dishonor of their Master. 

We have not made a separate classification of 
the election of a clerk. This matter may seem to 
many too trivial to be mentioned in this paper. 
We are, however, convinced to the contrary. It is 
of great importance that a man of good common 
sense and some familiarity with methods of busi- 
ness and forms of records should be elected for 
this office. The ability to record the proceedings 
of a church meeting in words properly spelled and 
which clearly express the exact truth is very im- 
portant. If the clerk is absent, the very first busi- 
ness will be to appoint another. Many churches 
neglect to guard against this apparently unimpor- 
tant omission, and the result is incorrect records 
and serious difficulties of various kinds. Church 

T 



29O CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

councils often give painful revelations as to the care- 
less methods of doing business in some churches. 
The multiplication of church meetings for the 
granting of letters and the receiving of members is 
often a great evil ; it is rare, indeed, when it is 
necessary to have more than the regular meeting 
each month. The exercise of sound judgment, and 
the refusal to gratify mere personal whims, will gen- 
erally obviate the necessity of multiplying meetings. 
We are convinced that nearly all the sad aliena- 
tions which too often occur in our churches might 
be avoided, and that all the business of the church 
would be greatly facilitated by the appointment of 
such an advisory committee as is here recom- 
mended. No language is too strong to express 
the deep conviction cherished in favor of this com- 
mittee, and the danger which will arise where busi- 
ness of all kinds and in all stages of immaturity is 
thrown into a church meeting for general dis- 
cussion. 

This paper is not given with the thought that it 
presents an exhaustive statement of the organiza- 
tion of a church with wide-reaching relations. 
Other committees will be considered later. The 
bodies named, however, are deemed to be neces- 
sary to a church whose organization is vigorous, 
symmetrical, harmonious, and permanent. 



XII 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 

THE development of a church of Christ is an 
object of sufficient difficulty to tax the abil- 
ity, and of sufficient importance to stimulate the 
energy of the most consecrated pastor. A vast 
amount of talent is latent in every church. This 
fact causes perplexity, anxiety, and sorrow to every 
thoughtful pastor. How shall this talent be dis- 
covered, developed, and consecrated ? This is a 
question to which the most careful thought and 
earnest action should be given. The answer to it 
is to be found partly in the complete organization 
of the church, as was suggested in the previous 
paper. Some specific reply, however, should be 
given, and some suggestions made which may lead 
to the discovery and development of the dormant 
powers in the members of our churches. To this 
task this paper is devoted. 

i. Attention is directed, in the first place, to the 
development of the social life of the church. The 
first suggestion made under this head is the im- 
portance of creating and diffusing a welcoming at- 
mosphere in the public services of God's house. 
It is difficult to define, although very easy to feel, 
the presence or absence of this atmosphere. It is 

291 



292 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

worth much when men and women are made to 
feel that in the church of Christ they are treated 
according to what they are, and not according to 
what they have ; that it is not the size of a man's 
bank account, or the character of his clothes, or the 
style of his living, but the uprightness of his char- 
acter and the consecration of his life which deter- 
mine the esteem in which he shall be held. The 
church is not a club, meeting in the winter time in 
the city and in the summer by the seashore or 
among the mountains. Its members are not to be 
selected by the rules which govern secular organ- 
izations ; its spirit is born of the love of Christ and 
the desire to serve him. The world divides society 
horizontally, selecting each layer most in harmony 
with its spirit and purpose ; a true church like the 
gospel of Christ, divides society vertically, cutting 
through all the layers and permeating all with the 
meek and lowly mind of Christ and inspiring all 
with his constraining love. When this spirit has 
been generated and widely diffused it will do much 
toward correcting false ideas regarding social dis- 
tinctions among the members of any church. It is 
not claimed that the social distinctions can be ob- 
literated in some of the relations of life ; but it is 
affirmed that in the house of God there should be 
neither rich nor poor ; both should kneel together 
before God in worship, and should stand together 
before God in work, remembering that he is the 
maker of all. 

In the application of this spirit some points 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 293 

should be noted. Much will depend upon the 
manner and spirit of the ushers in any church. 
Strangers coming to a church judge the spirit of 
pastor and people by the man whom they meet in 
the vestibule or the aisle. This is inevitable ; this 
is fitting. Great care, therefore, should be taken 
in selecting and training the men who are to be 
the interpreters to strangers of the spirit and life of 
the congregation. They ought to be men who 
have learned the spirit of true etiquette in its no- 
blest school, the school of Christ. The Great 
Teacher laid down a universal law which underlies 
all genuine courtesy. The golden rule is the high- 
est law of etiquette. The man who does not pos- 
sess its spirit should not occupy this position. 

The position is in every respect a trying one. In 
churches where pews are rented they must be re- 
served for their regular occupants until the expira- 
tion of the recognized time. But some pews are 
likely never to be fully occupied by those who rent 
them. All these things the usher must bear in 
mind so that strangers may be seated at the ear- 
liest possible moment. He must accommodate the 
feeble and timid who do not wish to walk far up 
the aisle ; he must also have regard for the com- 
paratively blind and deaf who wish to see and hear 
the minister ; he must consult the wishes of those 
into whose pews strangers are put. He must also 
be ready to take messages from strangers to the 
pastor, and be ready also to introduce them to him 
at the close of the service. Indeed, for many 



294 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

reasons there is no position in connection with 
public worship — save that of the preacher himself, 
or possibly the sexton, who is in some respects of 
more consequence than any other officer — more 
important than that occupied by the usher. Many 
persons have turned away from places of worship 
because of thoughtless treatment or intentional dis- 
courtesy on the part of the ushers ; while, on the 
other hand, many have enjoyed the entire service 
and determined to return because of the opposite 
treatment on the part of this important personage. 
The usher should be recognized as under the di- 
rection not primarily of the trustees but rather of 
the pastor and deacons and other religious officers 
of the church. The work of ushers should be per- 
formed by them not in a commercial but in a thor- 
oughly Christian spirit. The solemn directions of 
James regarding the man with goodly apparel, the 
gold ring, and the poor man in vile raiment must be 
scrupulously observed ; to do this an usher needs 
to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove, 
because of the rights and sometimes the prejudices 
of pewholders. There should be a head-usher 
who shall have entire charge of the work. Gentle- 
men of good social, business, and religious stand- 
ing, gentlemen with good address, courteous man- 
ners, and kindly faces should be appointed to this 
service. It is difficult to overestimate its impor- 
tance. The idea must be emphasized that this is 
religious work and must be performed in a thor- 
oughly religious spirit. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 295 

Another consideration is the importance of a cor- 
dial greeting to strangers by pewholders. Cour- 
teous and Christian service may be rendered by 
pewholders as they mingle in the vestibule with 
one another and with strangers. Instead of per- 
mitting strangers to wait until the arrival of the 
hour when all pews are free to the ushers, pew- 
holders ought to give strangers the hand of cordial 
welcome and the word of hearty greeting, and, so 
far as there is room, a fraternal invitation to pass 
in at once to seats in their pews. This invitation 
at the beginning of the service can be emphasized 
by courtesy during the service and by an invitation 
at the close to return whenever the stranger may 
be so disposed. Much missionary work may thus 
be done while going down the aisles or lingering 
about the doors of the house of God. We lose 
many opportunities for sowing the good seed of 
the kingdom by neglect at this point. The same 
spirit should be manifested to persons sitting in 
adjoining pews. Why should a formal introduc- 
tion be necessary among regular attendants at the 
house of God ? Why should men stand aloof when 
they are known to one another perhaps as mem- 
bers of the same church, certainly as attendants on 
the same ministry? 

This formalism is as ridiculous as it is unchristian. 
It is difficult for a pastor to speak with becoming 
calmness when contemplating such unbecoming 
stupidity. Old church-members often err at this 
point toward new members coming into the fellow- 



296 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

ship of the church ; but the new members, in turn, 
err in precisely the same way toward newer mem- 
bers. New members wait for the older members 
to speak to them ; in the meantime scores, pos 
sibly hundreds, of others, who are greater strangers 
than they have come into the congregation to 
whom they ought to be the first to speak. An il- 
lustration will make the thought clearer. A few 
years ago a charming old gentleman took a pew in 
a city church. He had come from the South, and 
had made his home in the North. He said to the 
pastor after he had been six months in attendance : 
" I wish the gentleman behind me would speak to 
me." The reply to his great surprise was: "The 
gentleman behind you has already expressed a sim- 
ilar desire in regard to you. You have been in 
the congregation three months longer than he, 
and he has wondered why you have not extended 
to him a cordial greeting." He had never dreamed 
that he was neglecting his duty in this way ; he had 
thought of himself as the stranger to whom all 
others ought to speak. Thousands more in our 
churches are doing the same thing ; they are wait- 
ing to be spoken to when they ought themselves 
to speak to those who are greater strangers than 
they. We need here, as everywhere in Christian 
work, sanctified common sense. It is difficult to 
have patience with those who are all the time wait- 
ing for a chance to be offended. Men with griev- 
ances are a grievous trial to any minister ; it must 
be admitted that in most cases they themselves are 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 297 

at fault. Why should they go about watching for 
slights ? On the other hand, why should others be 
afraid to extend a cordial welcome? Men who 
are afraid their social position would be compro- 
mised by welcoming strangers in the house of God, 
even though those strangers may be of a different 
social grade from themselves, must have a social 
position which is very unstable. Those whose po- 
sition is established and recognized, so that it is 
beyond dispute, never hesitate to reach out the 
hand to welcome a man whatever his position may 
be. When men have a sincere love for Christ all 
social distinctions vanish, at least in the public 
worship of God. 

Still another point of great value is the manner 
and spirit of the pastor himself. He can do much 
to create and diffuse this welcoming atmosphere. 
The tone of his voice, and, indeed, his whole man- 
ner in conducting the service, will help or hurt in 
this direction. As tending toward an expression 
of the pastor's kindly feeling in this regard, it is 
well to put cards into the pews, giving a statement 
of the hours when he can see those who desire to 
meet him on any matter of importance, and es- 
pecially those who wish to talk with him regarding 
their personal salvation. Even though the blanks 
on these cards for names and addresses may not 
be filled up by persons in the pews, the presence 
of the card greatly helps to foster the spirit of 
which we speak. It has also been found to be 
conducive to this spirit to invite strangers to meet 



298 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

him at the close of the service. In this way he 
gets the names and addresses of those who come 
within the boundary of his natural pastoral field ; 
on these strangers he may very shortly make pas- 
toral calls. He may have in this way an oppor- 
tunity to speak a personal word to those who are 
without Christ, and also a word of cheer to Chris- 
tians from distant parts of our country or from 
other lands. Words spoken in this way have often 
brought the tear of sympathy to the eye of a stran- 
ger and have often elicited from him expressions 
of hearty appreciation. Seed sown by the wayside 
in this manner may bring forth a rich harvest whose 
full fruitage may not be seen on this side of the 
great white throne. 

The second general thought in connection with 
the social life of the church is the value of church 
sociables. These should be held, when accom- 
modations will permit, in connection with the church 
home itself. Many persons will attend when gath- 
erings are thus held who would not go to private 
homes. There may be advantages in having the 
sociables at the home of some of the members ; but 
if the church embraces in its membership persons 
of widely different social conditions it is better, so 
long and so far as these foolish ideas prevail, to 
have the sociable in the church home. There 
ought to be some form of literary or musical exer- 
cises ; those are generally most conducive to the 
social idea and purpose which are conducted by 
the members of the church itself. The whole at- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 299 

mosphere of the sociable should be strictly relig- 
ious ; every part of every form of work in connec- 
tion with the house of God should be religious. 
Whatever in the music or in the social life of the 
church fails to deepen the religious spirit fails to 
accomplish its highest end. The question has 
sometimes been asked if the church sociable does 
not interfere with a revival. If it does the revival 
must be a very weak one or the sociable a very 
bad one. No sociable is worthy of the name 
except it be one which will help a revival. Its 
spirit may be thoroughly joyous, and yet so relig- 
ious that there would be no incongruity in stopping 
its exercises at almost any moment for prayer and 
religious conversation. Sociables of this character 
prove to be vastly helpful in deepening religious 
experience and in leading to a public profession of 
Christ. There is no reason why sociables should 
degenerate into worldliness, or into any form of 
exercise that shall be inimical to religious emotion 
and endeavor. The three-fold purpose of develop- 
ing the social, intellectual, and religious life of the 
church may be secured by a well-conducted church 
sociable. There ought to be no place in any part 
of church work for flippancy, frivolity, and mere 
secularity. The whole spirit must be religious. 

A third point in connection with the social life 
of a church is the value of intervisitation. Some- 
times committees on strangers can be induced to 
visit them in their homes so soon as their names 
and addresses are secured. Sometimes the deacons 



300 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

of churches can perform this work ; but in many 
churches it is difficult for deacons to render this 
service. In our larger cities many of them live far 
from their places of business. They leave their 
homes early in the morning and return to them 
late in the evening. They have little time, there- 
fore, for work of this sort. Deacons who are not 
so closely tied down to business often spend much 
time for the Master in connection with various 
benevolent organizations, meeting with committees, 
and engaging in other forms of work. At the same 
time those who move in certain circles of society are 
obliged to give much time to' the social demands of 
their position. This is especially true of many 
ladies. Those who have less of this world's goods 
have important domestic duties to perform. How 
then shall a system of intervisitation be carried on ? 
Committees can do something ; they might do 
much. It is important that those who live in a 
given section of a city or village, and who journey to 
church together, should know one another. It has 
been found to be a good plan for the pastor, and 
others who make visits in the congregation in the 
more formal or regular way, to give those on whom 
they call the names of a few others in the imme- 
diate neighborhood, with the urgent request that 
they be called upon at the earliest possible moment. 
Perhaps the pastor's next call will be upon one of 
the persons whom he wished the others to call upon. 
Let this process be repeated ; and before he shall 
have completed his visitation of the neighborhood 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 3OI 

he will have organized a regular system of inter- 
visiting. The members of the church will be 
amazed at one another for the next few weeks be- 
cause of the sudden desire which is manifested for 
one to call upon others in the neighborhood. 
Persons meeting one another in the vestibule, in 
the street car, and on the streets, will find that they 
know one another as never before, and thus they 
will be drawn together in Christian sympathy and 
endeavor. All this means work. But the result is 
worth the effort 

2. The development of the church in its intel- 
lectual life now claims our attention. The sermons 
of the pastor will greatly tend toward and will in 
some degree, secure this result. A good sermon 
stirs every element of the soul. To put a man into 
contact with the great thoughts of God is to stim- 
ulate all his noblest powers. No man can do his best 
intellectual work until he is brought into sympathy 
with the purposes of God. He must place Jesus 
Christ at the center of his intellectual system, so 
that all truths may range themselves in their proper 
relations to him who is the truth. He who sits 
most humbly at the feet of Jesus can walk most 
securely upon the dizzy heights of intellectual 
greatness. Other things being equal, the best 
scholar in the school of Christ will be the best 
scholar in all other schools. The influence of the 
pastor in developing the intellectual forces of his 
congregation in this direction is simply incalculable. 
As a result of the stimulus which the pastor thus 



302 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

gives there will grow up literary circles in the 
church itself. When these spring up naturally, 
and are wisely directed, they exercise an excellent 
influence upon the young men and women. Lit- 
erary circles may be of both sexes, meeting in the 
homes of the members. A few conservative men 
and women in one such circle will help to hold it 
to the purpose for which it was organized, and will 
make its intellectual attainments contribute to 
growth in grace and service in the church. Circles 
may be of one sex alone and, under the direction 
of persons of good judgment, may meet in some 
part of the church home. Much that young men 
receive in connection with Young Men's Christian 
Associations they ought to receive in connection 
with their own church. With the workings of such 
literary societies some pastors are quite familiar, 
and they are led to bear their emphatic testimony 
to their value. Here, as everywhere, conservative 
wisdom and Christian consecration are absolutely 
necessary. Out of this spirit and along the line of 
this endeavor there might come courses of lectures 
to be given in connection with other forms of 
church work, or simply for their own sake. It is 
easy to secure lectures from the professional men 
of any city or country village. These lectures 
might take a comparatively wide range ; some of 
the lecturers might be physicians who should dis- 
cuss matters of health and related topics ; any 
number of pastors would assist. Lecturers on 
history, science, art, and various literary subjects 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 303 

might be readily secured and would be heartily 
welcomed. 

In addition to these indirect methods the wise 
pastor in his leadership of his church will use direct 
efforts to induce young men and women to pursue 
courses of liberal study. He must be constantly 
watchful to secure men and women who are likely 
to be faithful students, that he may encourage them 
to enter upon the work of securing an education. 
The exercise of wise discrimination in selecting the 
persons, and then a few cheering words spoken to 
them, would lead scores and hundreds to enter our 
Baptist academies next fall. We do not urge that 
all these young men should go into the ministiy in 
the technical sense ; but we do urge that it is the 
duty of all to make the most of themselves for God 
and humanity. No man has a right to be an intel- 
lectual dwarf when he might be comparatively an 
intellectual giant. Every man should, as far as 
lieth in him, walk with his head among the stars. 
A few words spoken by a Presbyterian pastor in 
the central part of the State of New York led Na- 
than Bishop to pursue a college course. During 
that college course he developed many of those 
sterling qualities which made him for more than a 
quarter of a century a great power in his denom- 
ination and to Christianity as a whole. The cul- 
ture received in college led to his position as a 
tutor at Brown University; it led to the position of 
Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State 
of Massachusetts ; it did much to lay the founda- 



304 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

tion of his great and good influence during his 
public career. The space occupied by this entire 
article might be given to this one feature of the 
subject discussed. We cannot too earnestly urge 
upon our brethren that they shall do their full duty 
at this point. The cry for an educated ministry 
has been heard ; the cry must go out now for a 
more generally educated laity. Laymen are com- 
ing now into positions of prominence and power as 
never before ; in business life, political life, social 
life, and religious life, they are coming to the front. 
Laymen are becoming the leaders of great reforms 
in all departments of religious endeavor. We need 
such men for Sunday-school superintendents, Bible- 
class teachers, and for other forms of work in con- 
nection with the church of God. Let the cry go 
out ; let the ministry do their full duty, and acad- 
emies and colleges will be crowded with our noble 
young men and women who shall be fitted by cul- 
ture and by Christianity for the highest positions in 
the State and in the Church. 

3. The third main thought of this article is the 
development of the missionary life of the church. 
The church is to be benevolent ; but it must be 
also beneficent Benevolence is well-wishing ; be- 
neficence is well-doing. The first comes into the 
sphere of the heart ; the second into the sphere of 
the hand as well as the heart. Benevolence without 
beneficence is dead, being alone. The church must 
possess both of these characteristics. The church 
must be a missionary organization in all the length 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 305 

and breadth of that great word. It is the instinct 
of the new life in the soul to give of that life. We 
are redeemed that we may aid in the redemption 
of others ; we are Christianized that we may Chris- 
tianize. A man who can keep his religion to him- 
self has a religion not worth keeping. Christ can- 
not be hidden within the soul where he abides. 
His presence will reveal itself in the glance of the 
eye, the grasp of the hand, and the tones of the 
voice. This missionary spirit must be present also 
in obedience to the command of Christ. Tele- 
graph and telephone, steamship and railway, are 
the messengers of the Cross. They are girdling the 
world for truth and God. The church which fails 
to possess and manifest the missionary spirit ceases 
to be a church of Christ. It is robbed of its high 
honor and its great glory. It consents to degrade 
itself and to dishonor its Lord. 

The church ought also to possess this spirit 
for the sake of its own spiritual life and growth. 
Nothing is more certain than the great diamond 
truth of our Lord that "it is more blessed to give 
than to receive." Giving for Christ is not simply 
a duty, it is a privilege. It is not simply a priv- 
ilege, it is a glory. It develops manhood ; it de- 
velops Christhood, It lifts a man from his own 
selfish nature to the lofty mountain top where he 
may breathe the pure atmosphere, and may bask 
in the sunshine of noble achievement. It enables 
him to sing a Te Deum inspired by generous be- 
stowment, while others sing a Miserere born of 

u 



306 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

selfish withholding. God is the eternal Giver ; he 
would cease to be God if he ceased to give. Chris- 
tians who cease to give, cease to be godlike ; they 
cease to be Christians. The Dead Sea is dead be- 
cause it always receives and never bestows. Geog- 
raphers tell us that it has no outlet, and that from the 
nature of the case it cannot have one, visible or in- 
visible. The Christian who never bestows, dies. 

Each one of these three reasons for the culture 
of the missionary spirit in the church might be dis- 
cussed at length. But we address ourselves to the 
practical questions involved. How shall these 
principles be brought to bear in actual church life ? 
A few suggestions only can be made at this point. 
The pastor must begin with those who are young 
in years and in the Christian life. He must insist 
upon willingness to give for Christ's cause as an 
evidence of conversion when persons are received 
by baptism into the church. When we are con- 
verted we profess to give all to Christ in joyous self- 
surrender. If Christians are not trained to this 
duty in the beginning of their Christian life, nothing 
short of dynamite or an earthquake will move them 
when they have grown old in miserliness. Covet- 
ousness is idolatry. Of this idolatry many of the 
members of our churches are guilty. It would be 
an excellent thing to make the charge, furnish the 
proof, and exclude the guilty. Such an example 
might be blessed to their own spiritual good, and 
it certainly would have a wholesome influence over 
others who are guilty of the same sin. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHCrtCH 2>°7 

The pastor must also urge men to give when they 
are relatively poor. If they do not give then they 
will not give when they are absolutely rich. The 
accumulation of wealth often closes and hardens 
the heart ; its loss sometimes opens both heart and 
hand. Sometimes the more God lavishes upon 
men the narrower and meaner they become. Every 
man, woman, and child should be taught to give. 
Further, the pastor must insist upon giving from 
the highest motives. It is blessed to give because 
of the good which others receive. It is blessed to 
give because of the reflex influence upon the giver's 
own soul. But giving must be iMspired by even 
higher motives. It must be for Christ's special 
honor. It is often as much a past v >r's duty to take 
up a collection as to administer baptism or the 
Lord's Supper. Some of the ter^derest and most 
glowing utterances of the Great Apostle were in- 
spired by taking up a collection. A revival which 
taking a collection for Christ's cause will hurt is a 
revival not worth hurting or helping. All giving 
which ministers to a worldly spirit is utterly beneath 
the dignity and glory of Christian service. All 
gold, every gift of every sort, finds its true place 
when laid at the Master's feet. The pastor himself 
as a rule ought to present all cases of benevolence 
to his people. The cause which is worthy of their 
benefactions is worthy of his careful preparation 
and earnest presentation. We need the large gifts 
of the wealthy, but we need also the smaller gifts 
of the poor. Our great denomination is achieving 



308 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

glorious results, but it has not yet reached its highest 
possibilities. Our treasuries are groaning and our 
work is languishing because God's people have not 
laid more on his altar. The cry for retrenchment 
has been heard, even when God's providence was 
saying in a thousand voices, " Go forward." We 
rejoice in what has been achieved but we must 
go on to greater endeavors and to grander results. 
Let the church vote on the objects which are to be 
presented during the year ; the date of presentation 
ought also to be decided by vote. At the prayer 
meeting preceding the date when the object is to 
be presented by the pastor, that object should be the 
subject of most earnest and united prayer. Let the 
missionary concert be regularly observed ; let the 
pastor give full and accurate information. Let him 
after due preparation present the objects of benevo- 
lence, and let the duty of a liberal contribution be 
pressed upon the people with all the tenderness 
and authority which he can command, and a re- 
sponse will not be lacking. God help pastors in 
the performance of this duty. Glorious possibilities 
beckon us forward to greater sacrifices and assure 
us of grander achievements. 

4. The development of the church along the 
line of its distinctly religious life is the fourth topic 
of remark ; but the points already made ought to 
insure this form of development. In our busy life 
much is said about work ; too little is said about 
religious thought, profound meditation, and secret 
communion. It is work, work, work. We are 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH 309 

carried forward by the hurry, bustle, and excite- 
ment of the spirit of the time in which we live. 
Our Sundays are days of incessant activity. Per- 
haps if we have encouraged the Martha spirit, it 
has been at the expense of the Mary spirit ; the 
spirit of active service at the expense of quiet and 
prolonged meditation. We need both. Christ's life 
is the model for ours ; and Christ's life was devoted 
to quiet communion with God and active service for 
men. Before and after his miracles this quiet 
communion was sought. No life ever reaches its 
highest possibility on the public street. Secret 
communion with God is necessary for wise service 
with men. We would not advocate the dreamy, 
mystic, pietistic spirit which has appeared in many 
different countries and centuries ; but it must be 
admitted that that spirit in Germany, France, and 
England has wrought wonders in the formation of 
character, and, when accompanied by wise activity, 
in carrying forward the work of God. The danger 
to-day, except in sporadic cases, does not lie in that 
direction. It lies rather in the direction of noisy 
and shallow parade. Books like Dr. Gordon's 
" In Christ," and the " Two-fold Life," are as nec- 
essary in our modern life as they are rare in the 
Christian literature of to-day. To be mighty with 
men we must have power with God. Sitting at his 
feet is the best preparation for running in the way 
of his commandments. When our " life is hid with 
Christ in God " it will be a daily benediction among 
men. 



XIII 

THE SELECTION OF A CHURCH 

IT is almost impossible to over-estimate the im- 
portance to a young minister of making a wise 
selection in the case of his first church. The spirit 
and character of his entire ministry may depend 
upon the wisdom or unwisdom of that choice. A 
blunder at this point may create memories which 
which shall be barbed arrows in his soul ; a wise 
choice at this point will make the recollection of 
his earlier ministry an inspiration and benediction 
during all his later years. The special topic of this 
article, therefore, ought to be earnestly considered 
by all ministerial students and younger pastors. 
Whatever may throw light upon duty at this crisis 
is to be welcomed. 

The first suggestion is, Do not coquet with 
churches. Coquetry is bad in every relation in 
life : it is especially bad when either the churches 
or ministers of Christ are its victims. Ministerial 
students in their relations to churches are often ex- 
posed to this subtle temptation. There is a vast 
deal of human nature in young theologians ; candor 
compels the admission that it is not fully eradicated 
even in the case of experienced pastors. The petty 
jealousies and foolish rivalries of both students and 
310 



THE SELECTION OF A CHURCH 3 I I 

pastors are not pleasant subjects of contemplation. 
A call from a large and strong church enables a 
man to lay a "nattering unction" to his own soul, 
and it gives him an opportunity to rejoice over his 
less fortunate brother. Such a call gives fuel to 
the fires of his own ambition, and permits him to 
see his brother in the shadow caused by his own 
bright light. It may be that his actual or contem- 
plated marriage relations may stimulate his zeal to 
secure a flattering call. Such ambitions are neither 
manly nor Christly ; but neither are they unnatural 
nor uncommon. Ministerial coquetry, with its va- 
ried and numerous blandishments, often victimizes 
innocent churches. It must be admitted that the 
coquetry is sometimes ecclesiastical rather than min- 
isterial, innocent ministers being the victims of the 
"caresses and wheedles" of coquetting churches. 
The process by which churches may be victimized 
is an open professional secret. A fairly good call 
is received ; it is too good to be declined unless a 
better may be reasonably expected. It is there- 
fore held for a time under "advisement." An ap- 
pearance of interest is manifested in the church ; 
but various arts are employed to secure a more 
desirable call. It comes ; the first is declined with 
plausible reasons, and the pastorate is entered upon 
with the consciousness of having skillfully managed 
a difficult matter. But the man who begins his 
work as a minister of Christ in this spirit and by 
the use of these means, has much yet to learn of the 
first "principles of the doctrine of Christ." 



312 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

But even after some men have been long in the 
pastorate they are still in danger of practising co- 
quetry. It is a matter both of amazement and 
amusement that some pastors get so many calls. 
We are all becoming familiar with the character of 
the announcements which are a part of the general 
proceeding. It is mysteriously reported that a well- 
known and brilliantly successful pastor is to receive 
a call from a large and wealthy church. In due 
time the call is given. A few weeks of painful 
suspense follow ; an expectant world awaits with 
intense anxiety the great man's momentous reply. 
The newspapers, having announced the call, indulge 
in various conjectures as to the probable answer. 
Two churches are on the torture-wheel of suspense. 
At length the reply comes ; the matter has been 
carefully and prayerfully considered, and the call 
is declined. Letters to both the churches are pub- 
lished ; the importance of both in their respective 
cities, to the denomination generally and to the 
cause of Christ at large, is duly emphasized. This 
is a part of the plan ; this adds honor to the dis- 
tinguished man who has received the call and who 
writes the letters. It is adroitly implied that should 
the call be accepted the interests of the church 
giving it would be amazingly and speedily advanced ; 
but in that event the very life of the other church 
would be seriously imperiled. What could the 
great man do in such a case but decline ? Who 
can blame him ? This is the usual order of events. 
One church settles down to its former condition of 



THE SELECTION OF A CHURCH 313 

possession ; the other to its former condition of in- 
quiry, and both with a little less faith in human 
nature in general, and a great deal less faith in 
ministerial nature in particular. 

How came the church to extend the call ? The 
answer to that question must not even be remotely 
suggested. But in a little time this entire history 
will be repeated in the case of other churches. Still, 
there is no cause for serious alarm regarding the 
interests of the church now favored with the minis- 
trations of the highly gifted brother. He never 
meant to go ; he was only coquetting with both 
churches ; it was simply a case of ministerial flirta- 
tion. It takes some time and much experience to 
acquire this noble art in its full perfection ; but here 
as elsewhere patience and perseverance are sure to 
result in success. Perhaps the affection of the home 
church has been stimulated, possibly it has been 
chilled ; but at least an extensive denominational 
advertisement has been secured. 

There is sometimes a practical and mercantile 
element in these cases of cajolery and flirtation. A 
bit of history will illustrate this point. Pastor A 
wished Pastor B to write a letter recommending 
him as a candidate for a vacant pastorate. A is a 
considerate man ; he suggested the kind of letter 
which he wished to have written. After recounting 
his brilliantly successful history in several pastor- 
ates, the letter was to state that A was of all men 
the man for the place ; as a preacher he could 
draw, and as a pastor he could hold those whom 



314 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

his eloquence had drawn. It was certain that with 
his going several family friends would at once unite 
with the church, and in the event of building a new 
church home certain other family connections would 
make the raising of money outside of the church a 
comparatively easy matter. Thus the desired letter 
was considerately, if not modestly, outlined. B was 
not a little surprised that A, with his successful his- 
tory as outlined for the proposed letter, should de- 
sire this call. The church was not an inviting one ; 
it had but a small congregation, it needed a church 
edifice, and it could pay but a small salary. Sus- 
picion finally was aroused, and the question was 
bluntly asked, "Do you really wish for this call? 
Would you accept it if it were given?" The blunt- 
ness was startling. The reply came hesitantly, "No, 
I really would not ; the fact is, my people have a 
debt which they are making no efforts to raise, and 
they are behind with my salary, and if I could get 
this call it would at least strengthen me at home, 
and would possibly stir up the people to do some- 
thing." 

The letter asked for was not written. The 
brother's frankness is rare ; it is hoped and be- 
lieved that his unfairness, not to use a harsher 
word, is also rare among Christian ministers. He 
was selfishly coquetting with two churches ; he was 
trifling with sacred interests ; he was degrading 
himself and dishonoring his Lord. No man can 
afford to lose his self-respect. To take this crown 
from one's brow is a painful humiliation in the 



THE SELECTION OF A CHURCH 3 I 5 

sight of men, angels, and God. To a true minister 
the interests of a church are sacred. No genuine 
man will trifle with the affection, faith, or honor of 
a church of Christ. The church is Christ's noblest 
work, his sublime masterpiece among men. Next 
to his birth, death, and resurrection, and the coming 
of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, its organiza- 
tion was the greatest event in the history of that 
wonderful time. It manifests even to angels the 
many-sided wisdom of God. The man who injures 
the church wounds her Lord. What are the am- 
bitions, failures, or successes of any man compared 
with the prosperity of the church and the honor of 
the Lord ! 

A second suggestion is, Do not be afraid of a 
hard field. Every field has in it some elements of 
hardness. In one field it may be the history and 
standing of the church in that community ; in an- 
other it may be some headstrong deacon ; in an- 
other a rule-or-ruin faction; in another it maybe a 
heavy debt ; in another there may be, for special 
reasons, an unusual degree of denominational op- 
position ; and in still another the church may be 
in a fearfully cold and dead spiritual condition. 
Every field is hard. Always and everywhere this 
has been true ; always and everywhere this will 
be true. When a man begins his work, empty 
galleries perhaps rebuke, mock, and jeer him. 
They sadden, they madden him. Small, cold 
prayer meetings chill his soul. His field is hard. 
Few fields, he thinks, are so hard. But in a few 



3 16 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

years he may see the galleries filled with earnest 
hearers ; the prayer meetings large and warm ; con- 
tributions liberal and religious; and the work of 
his hand in all directions prospered. Is his field 
easy now? It never was half so hard before. 
Other elements of hardness have come into his life 
and work. Calls for all sorts of work multiply, 
and weighty responsibilities increase. To beat 
one's own record often taxes one's utmost strength. 

It is well to remember that God gives no good 
things in this life except as the reward of toil. 
Work and worth are ever close neighbors. We 
may not expect to escape the operation of this 
universal law. All God's servants have worked in 
line with this invariable principle. Moses had a 
tolerably hard field when God said to him, "Come 
now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, 
that thou mayest bring forth my people the chil- 
dren of Israel out of Egypt." The history of the 
execution of this command is not suggestive of an 
easy task. The call which came out of the midst 
of the burning bush, contemplated a hard field. 
Moses had an easy field, comparatively, during his 
forty years of obscurity in the land of Midian. He 
had, in one sense, an easy field during his forty 
years of court life in the Egyptian metropolis. But 
the forty years of wilderness life made him an un- 
speakable blessing to the world, and gave him un- 
dying fame ; but for those years we might never 
have heard his name. 

Elijah did not have an easy task when with the 



THE SELECTION OF A CHURCH 317 

suddenness of the lightning's flash he stood before 
Ahab and made his dire declaration. One can 
scarcely call Cherith, Zarephath, Carmel, or Horeb 
easy fields. It does not seem to have been the 
purpose of God or the desire of Elijah to find 
such a field. From this hard toil he went up in 
triumph to glory and to God. From the hard 
field there was a way leading to the mount of 
Transfiguration and the companionship of Moses 
and Christ. Isaiah, whom the apostle designates 
as "very bold," and whom Dean Stanley con- 
siders "one of the grandest figures on the page of 
history," did not escape the difficulties of a hard 
field. The critics seem determined to do now with 
his book what, according to the tradition, his ene- 
mies did to his body. Jeremiah had a hard field. 
No wonder that for a time he held aloof from the 
work to which the Divine voice called him ; no 
wonder that it was difficult for him to lay aside all 
natural fear and trembling. His was a marvelous 
life ; it is but inadequately appreciated even by 
many intelligent Bible readers. He was hated of 
all men for his Lord's sake. The priest Pashur 
smote him and "put him into the stocks." Men 
hated him as a "prophet of evil"; "every one 
cursed him." But he still reproved king, nobles, 
and people. In the far-off future he had the glori- 
ous vision of " a righteous branch" of the house 
of David ; he saw the people united under " the 
Lord our Righteousness." " He endured, as see- 
ing him who is invisible;" this is a possible and 



3 1 8 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

a glorious sight. Perhaps the tradition is true 
which makes the long tragedy of his life end in 
glorious martyrdom. The word of the Lord was 
in him as a " burning fire." It is certain that Paul 
did not have an easy field in Philippi, at Thessa- 
lonica, at Corinth, at Rome. Think of Paul seek- 
ing an easy field ! 

But time would fail me to tell of Xavier, Brain- 
erd, Carey, Judson, and a thousand more, repre- 
senting various centuries, countries, and creeds, 
"Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought 
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the 
mouths of lions, . . . waxed valiant in fight, turned 
to flight the armies of the aliens." To endure 
hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ is one 
element in our divine call, culture, and consecra- 
tion. This spirit makes and reveals noble charac- 
ter ; it develops the grandest elements of manhood ; 
it may also bring to light the weakness which theo- 
logical seminaries and ordaining councils failed to 
discover. The furnace is a good school for God's 
prophets ; its fierce heat is not an unmixed evil. 
Storms are good for oaks. The "tribulum" sepa- 
rates the grain from the chaff! A man had better 
not enter the ministry, or having entered it he had 
better leave it, if he is not willing to endure hard- 
ness whereof all noble workers are partakers. 
Difficulties vanish before the presence of a man 
whose soul is constrained by the love of Christ. 
Toil to such a man is joy. Work is a divine bless- 
ing. Christ's true soldiers welcome the fierce 



THE SELECTION OF A CHURCH 319 

battle. Such a contest glorifies his Lord. In this 
spirit the true workman enters the hard field, and 
soon the thorn shall be supplanted by the fir tree, 
and the brier by the myrtle tree ; " and it shall be 
to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign 
that shall not be cutoff." 

A third suggestion is, Do not hesitate to go 
where God manifestly leads. The Christian, and 
especially the Christian minister, is a man dead to 
himself and to the world, but alive unto Christ. 
He has no self life ; his life is hid with Christ in 
God. When he became a Christian self was ut- 
terly and forever dethroned, and Christ was com- 
pletely and forever enthroned. He is crucified to 
the world and its vain ambitions. This is implied 
in his reception of Christ ; this is emphasized in 
the beautiful and significant ordinance of baptism. 
What Loyola was to his obedient followers that 
and more Christ is to be to all his people. What 
the followers of St. Francis were to him as their 
absolutely authoritative leader, that and more are 
all Christ's followers to be to him. His word is 
their supreme law ; the whispers of his will are 
more authoritative to them than the thunders of 
merely human speech. 

Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs but to do and die. 

To no man would we render unquestioning obe- 
dience ; such assumption of authority on his part 



320 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

we would utterly and scornfully repudiate. To 
Christ, on the contrary, we should render nothing 
else ; such assumption on his part is not assump- 
tion. It is his right to command ; it is our glory 
to obey. Absolute surrender to Jesus Christ is the 
sublimity of manhood. We need more of it. A 
man is never so lofty as when he is thus lowly at 
Jesus' feet. Even comparatively impure faiths have 
had their heroes and martyrs. The spirit of devo- 
tion to the Church of Rome gives us a haloed his- 
tory of the establishment of that church in North 
America. That church has in this historic connec- 
tion a long line of heroes, saints, and martyrs. 
The founding of the city of Montreal by Maison- 
neuve, in May, 1642, is romantic as a dream and 
heroic as any battlefield. This Christian knight 
declared that it was alike his duty and his honor 
to found a colony in Montreal, and that he would 
go if every tree were an Iroquois. In some of these 
brave missionaries highest culture and deepest con- 
secration sweetly blended. No country, no faith 
has witnessed more consecrated and untiring zeal. 
Men of noble blood and refined culture were will- 
ing to live in the blinding smoke, the bitter cold, 
the dense ignorance, and the abominable cruelties 
of the Indian wigwams, in order to teach these 
savages the truths of Christianity. Near a spot 
which the writer knows well, one of these conse- 
crated men kept life within his emaciated body in 
his tent by hugging a dog during the nights of a 
terrible Canadian winter. No history tells of 



THE SELECTION OF A CHURCH 32 1 

greater sacrifices. The story as told by Parkman, 
in "The Jesuits of North America," thrills the 
heart to-day. The blood of these princely men 
dyed that Canadian soil ; that blood was the seed 
of their church No story of missionary zeal, ex- 
cept it be that of Xavier, can surpass that of the 
brave Brebceuf and the heroic Lalemant, who were 
sent to. the Huron Mission and were captured and 
tortured by Iroquois Indians in the most horrible 
manner, too horrible to be fully described, till 
death came to their relief. 

In all the world to-day the pope has no such 
obedient children as these French Canadians ; they 
show a love and loyalty worthy of a purer faith 
and more Christly church. It must be admitted 
that the standards of the Church of Rome were 
planted in that inhospitable soil by as brave and 
consecrated men as ever went out to evangelize the 
world. The shores of Lake Michigan were trodden 
by men of like spirit. Those shores are still voice- 
ful with the echoes of Father Marquette's words 
and deeds. He still lives, not only in material 
monuments, but also in the Christian profession of 
many a red son of the forest. The church which 
is blessed with such sons shall win the victories of 
missionary zeal in every land. If these men did 
this for Mary, what ought we to do for Mary's Son 
and Lord ? With a purer faith we ought to have 
a more fervent zeal. The errors of these teachers 
were numerous and deadly ; the fruits of these er- 
rors are still sadly seen in many ways in Eastern 



322 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Canada ; but their devotion to duty, as they under- 
stood it, was simply sublime. They hesitated not 
to go where they believed God manifestly led them ; 
no danger deterred them, no suffering lessened the 
fervor of their flaming zeal. Men with such zeal 
in their lives and with the pure gospel of Christ on 
their lips, the world needs to-day ; many such 
would soon bring the world to its Lord's feet. To 
send out such the churches and schools should 
constantly labor and pray. 

If a man is sure that he is led by the Spirit of 
God to a particular field, he can endure anything 
in that field. If he is there by manipulations and 
artifices of his own, he is stripped of all power. 
He is a soldier in battle without helmet, sword, or 
shield. Why should a man wish to go where God 
does not lead ? He can have no joy, no peace, no 
success. Going where God leads he will have all 
which God sees best to give. He will have at least 
self-respect ; he will have also God. Anywhere 
with God is success, is heaven. The arts some- 
times practised to secure calls are as unwise from 
a worldly point of view, as they are unchristian from 
a religious point of view. No greater unkindness 
can be done to a man than to push him by the in- 
fluence of friends and the tricks of the politician 
into a place for which he is manifestly unfit. The 
higher he is lifted the more conspicuous does his 
unfitness become. The men who during our war 
were pushed into high places in army and navy by 
political and social influences, soon went down al- 



THE SELECTION OF A CHURCH 323 

most out of sight. The men who went up because 
they had ability to go, are still up in honorable 
office or in immortal history. 

Can a man know that in the selection of his 
church he is led by the Spirit of God ? Only as 
he is thus led can he know that he is a child of 
God. God will never leave long in the dark an 
honest inquirer for light and duty. A man must 
first carefully question his motives. If the response 
from the bottom of his soul is that he desires simply 
to know God's will, that knowledge will soon come. 
God may not wish any church to call him. God 
may desire him to go out and call a church ; for 
this procedure he will have abundant apostolic 
precedent. What would the apostles have accom- 
plished had they waited to be called? What 
would missionaries do to-day if they waited for a 
call from a church ? 

Then, again, there must be a careful study, in 
the light of sanctified common sense, of all the 
providential leadings. God often answers the 
prayer for wisdom by shutting up all doors but 
one ; that open door is his voice, saying, "This is 
the way, walk ye in it." There may be, still again, 
impressions of duty in certain directions, whose 
origin we cannot trace, but whose promptings we 
should obey. If our motives are pure, if God's 
guidance has been earnestly sought, and if God's 
providences have been unselfishly studied, then we 
may be sure that these promptings are from God. 
The man will never go astray whose life is guided 



324 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

by this universal and eternal law, formulated and 
exemplified by Jesus Christ, a law which every 
Christian minister should take as the rule of his 
life: "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; 
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall 
find it." 



XIV 
THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 1 

IN this discussion of the Christian year it is ad- 
mitted, at the outset, that neither in the New 
Testament, nor in the earliest Christian literature, 
are there commands for or intimations of the ob- 
servance of such a division of time as we now 
understand by the Christian or Church year. There 
is clear evidence that in the second century there 
was a general observance of Easter and Pentecost ; 
but not until after the fourth century did the Chris- 
tian year, with its cycle of annual festivals, come 
before us in its chief outlines; and not until a 
much later period do we find it in its present form. 
During this earlier period there are no suggestions 
of a departure from the methods of reckoning time 
which were observed by all the subjects of the 
Roman Empire. Throughout this paper this ad- 
mission will be made, and no effort to found the 
observance upon the clear teachings of the Scrip- 
ture will be attempted. This paper endorses the 
observance of a modified form of the Christian year. 
Several reasons lead to this endorsement, and your 
attention is now invited to their consideration. 
I The first reason is found in a consideration of 

1 Delivered at the tenth Baptist Congress, held in Philadelphia, 
May 25, 1892. 

325 



326 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

what the Christian year is. Its chief peculiarity is, 
as Dr. Schaff has well said, " that it centers in the 
person and work of Jesus Christ, and is intended to 
minister to his glory." The first impulse toward 
the Church year was given by the observance of 
the anniversaries of the great events in his life. 
The earliest facts in that life to be commemorated 
were naturally his death and resurrection. Then 
followed, at a considerable distance, the observance 
of the supposed anniversary of his birth ; then, in 
their order, that of his ascension and the outpour- 
ing of the Holy Spirit. Later each of these great 
feasts came to be regarded as the center of a cycle ; 
and, in due time, these cycles were so extended as 
to commemorate almost everything of great im- 
portance in the life of the Lord. The true idea of 
the Christian year is that which regards it as a 
yearly representation of the most memorable in- 
cidents in the life of the Lord. It is thus seen 
to be an annual Confession of Faith, each part of 
the year witnessing to some great article in that 
Confession. It kept, and is designed always to 
keep, before the minds alike of devout believers 
and of worldly observers, the chief facts in the his- 
tory of redemption. It is an illustrated edition of 
the gospel history. There surely can be no objec- 
tion to the emphasis thus given to the leading 
chapters in that divine-human life. Many men will 
not learn this story even after all the attempts made 
to teach it, alike by those who observe and those 
who discard the Christian year. Ten men read the 



THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 327 

story of Christianity as it is exhibited in the lives 
of professed Christians for every one who reads it 
as it is recorded in the inspired Gospels. Every 
Christian should incarnate in his own character the 
teachings and example of the Lord. Every church 
should, in like manner, by special observance em- 
phasize the teaching and example of Christ as they 
are set forth in the New Testament, and ten men 
will learn the significance of these events as they 
are emphasized by church observances for every 
one who would learn them if he were limited to the 
gospel story. If then, we keep in mind the real 
meaning of the Christian year we shall find in that 
itself a strong argument in favor of its observance. 

2. A second argument is found in the natural- 
ness, and even inevitableness, of the growth of the 
Christian year. This growth has a three-fold origin. 
(1) It is due partly to the influence of the Jewish 
ecclesiastical year upon the minds of the early 
Christians. It was impossible that the Jewish sacred 
year should not have produced a profound influence 
in the development of the Christian cultus. The 
whole Jewish year was symbolical and typical ; if 
we forget that fact we lose much of its significance. 
The Sabbath was commemorative and prophetic ; 
it looked back to creation, it looked forward to re- 
demption. The Passover, with its lamb and all its 
appointments, foretold the coming of the Lamb of 
God, and found its full fruitage in his "resurrection. 
The Passover was the root and stalk of the truth of 
which Easter is the flower and the fruit. The Jew- 



328 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

ish feast of Harvest ripened into the Christian Pen- 
tecost. The Christian feasts give us the true meaning 
of those Jewish festivals. (2) Heathen festivals had 
their influence also in the development of these Chris- 
tian feasts. This is frankly admitted. No doubt 
they are right who say that Christmas is but the 
transformation of a heathen festival. The Christians, 
with a worldly wisdom which all will not endorse, 
strove to transform and exalt the heathen festivals 
with which they were unavoidably brought into 
contact in business and social life. But it must be 
borne in mind that even these festivals had a deeper 
meaning than perhaps either heathen or Christians 
fully knew. They are founded upon the sublime 
truths which God is constantly teaching us in his 
great book of nature. The heathen festival which 
Christmas transformed, suggests Christ as the Sun 
of Righteousness for the illumination of the world. 
These heathen festivals, as has been often pointed 
out, were unconscious prophecies of Christian 
truths. The psalmist long ago sang, " Day unto 
day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth 
knowledge." The whole earth is 'voiceful with 
truths regarding God, if men will but listen ; the 
panorama of the seasons is resplendent with the 
glory of the Sun of Righteousness, if men will but 
look. 

Many writers have dwelt upon the fact that there 
is thus a mysterious correspondence between the 
seasons and the observance of the Church year. 
Christmas emphasizes the coming of Christ into a 



THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 329 

lost world, in winter time when nature appears to 
be lifeless. Easter reminds us of the resurrection 
of all nature to life and power ; and Pentecost is 
illustrative of the summer when nature is in bloom. 
It is admitted, indeed, that this correspondence 
possesses its chief significance in northern climes ; 
nevertheless there are here suggestions worthy of 
our constant consideration. Similar tendencies are 
seen in our own day. Converted Chinese are anxious 
to introduce Christian ideas into Chinese observ- 
ances. How shall they observe the Chinese New 
Year ? In several instances they have transformed 
that festival into an occasion for the declaration of 
Christian truth. They have kept the heathen date, 
but have baptized the heathen observance into an 
atmosphere of Christian truth. He would be a 
bold man who would rebuke the early Christians 
for doing in their day what we endorse converted 
heathen for doing in our own day. He is a very 
inconsistent man who is opposed to the Christian 
element in these baptized heathen festivals, while 
he freely endorses the heathen elements which still 
remain. Many a man freely allows his children to 
"knock eggs" at Easter-tide, and to indulge in 
other heathen elements of the season, but who 
sharply rebukes his children for giving a Christian 
significance to that joyous feast. Many a man will 
allow the erection of trees in his home and the 
burning of tapers in the branches of those trees at 
the Christmas-tide, although this custom is pure hea- 
thenism, who would think his family were going to 



330 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Rome or further if they attended a service in God's 
house on Christmas Day. Such a man will boldly 
observe the heathen remnants of those old heathen 
festivals, while he vigorously repudiates the Chris- 
tian elements for which alone these festivals are 
worthy of our approval. 

In a town to which this writer's attention was 
recently called, there was a few years ago a great 
beer garden. An earnest preacher visited that 
town and held meetings near the garden ; many 
were converted and a church was organized which 
was called "The Garden Church." Did he do 
right in so naming it ? Or was he guilty of a fool- 
ish submission to the world and the devil ? Who 
will so charge him ? It is a thousand pities that we 
cannot be governed in our church life by sanctified 
common sense and not by reasonless prejudice. 

(3) The desire to commemorate the anniversaries 
of important events in the life of Christ, as has 
already been suggested, also had its influence in 
the development of the Church year. The history 
of every religious and national organization illus- 
trates the tendency to this annual emphasis. We 
are soon to commemorate great events in the life 
of Carey and in the establishment of Baptist Foreign 
Missions. We are constantly multiplying commem- 
orative occasions in the history of the republic. A 
few years ago our holidays were few; soon they will 
be very numerous. Already there is discussion of 
the duty of making the birthdays of the unique 
Columbus, the immortal Lincoln, and the illustrious 



THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 33 I 

Grant, holidays. The seventieth birthday of the 
great general was made this year a half-holiday in 
the city of New York. It was simply inevitable 
that with the development of the history of the 
church the anniversary of leading events in Christ's 
life should be recognized. The original idea was 
eminently praiseworthy. It served to keep these 
events constantly before the mind of the people ; it 
aimed to intermingle the facts of our Lord's life 
with the daily experiences of the common people, 
and to call attention to the great facts on which our 
salvation depends. 

Unfortunately, with the introduction of other 
errors these days came to be unduly multiplied. 
When the worship of the Virgin Mary was intro- 
duced, then came days commemorating events in 
her life ; then came the commemoration of the 
death days, or as they were poetically called, " the 
heavenly birthdays " of apostles, martyrs, and saints. 
The idea soon arose that within the circle of the 
civil year all the great events, from the first an- 
nouncement of the Lord's birth to the death of the 
last saint, should be celebrated. It is said that the 
Nestorians were the first to suggest that the Church 
year begin with the first Sunday in Advent. Soon 
the octave followed the observance of the great 
festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and 
others. It thus came to pass that the Church year, 
which began in simplicity, was gradually overloaded, 
that superstition and idleness increased, that the 
Sabbath was to some degree superseded, and that 



332 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

the work of Christ was held in less esteem than the 
patronage of saints. Even as early as the Nicene 
age these feasts connected with Mary and the 
martyrs were crowded into the church calendar. 
In the Greek Church at this hour there are to de- 
vout worshipers only one hundred and thirty work- 
ing days in the year. This undue development is 
one of the dangerous tendencies of the system ; but 
a similar remark will apply to all the command- 
ments of God and to all the apostolic observances 
in the church. The Lord's baptism and the Lord's 
Supper have been so misunderstood as to destroy 
their true significance, and to make the word of 
God of non effect. We must at every point in 
church life distinguish between the use and abuse 
of that which is commanded by divine authority, 
and also of that which is permitted in the exercise 
of Christian liberty. 

3. A third reason in favor of these observances 
is found in the fact that they conduce to the pre- 
sentation of the truth in its entirety. Truth is a 
sphere and not an arc. We are all in danger of 
presenting truth as a segment, rather than as a 
circle. We should constantly strive to present it 
in its sphericity ; but too often, at best, the truth is 
presented as a spheroid rather than as a sphere. 
We are all in danger of riding some sort of a hobby, 
which soon rides us. 

It must be admitted that one advantage secured 
by a reasonable observance of the Church year is 
the presentation of truth more nearly in its due 



THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 333 

proportions ; thus avoiding the danger of giving 
almost exclusive prominence to our own favorite 
fragments of the gospel, and helping to its presenta- 
tion with symmetry and beauty. One man is 
carried away by the idea of Christian perfection ; 
another by the second coming of Christ ; another 
by some other doctrine of greater or less impor- 
tance. These men hold a few truths so conspicu- 
ously before their eyes that they are blind to many 
other great and perhaps more important truths of 
the Bible. In some churches some doctrines are 
almost never heard, while others are heard with a 
painful monotony and a reprehensible repetition. 
Surely no one will deny that the doctrine of the 
resurrection ought to be presented in every con- 
gregation at least once a year, and surely no one 
will affirm that there is a more appropriate time 
for its presentation than the Easter-tide. Then 
earth and sky combine to emphasize the truth of 
that great doctrine. At that season its sublime 
truths are in the heart of the great majority in every 
community. It would be worse than folly not to 
take advantage of the presence of these thoughts 
for the declaration of this glorious doctrine. The 
observance is here ; it will remain. 

A man might as well "whistle down the wind" 
or "bay the moon" as attempt to prevent the ob- 
servance of these customs. The question really is 
not, Shall we have a Church year? It is, Shall we 
have the best possible Church year ! A recent 
article in the "Watchman" calls attention to the 



334 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

fact that many of our churches are rapidly coming 
to have a Church year of a very undesirable kind, 
to some degree of an unchristian kind. The first 
Sunday in January is Evangelical Alliance Day. 
The first week in January is a sort of non-Episcopal 
Lent. Then come Home Mission day, Foreign 
Mission day, Bible and Publication day, Children's 
day, Theological Seminary day, Chapel day, Bible 
day, Prison day, Labor day, College day, Grand 
Army day, Y. M. C. A. day, Temperance day, 
Education day, Public Schools day, Mohonk Con- 
ference day, Freedman's day, Christian Endeavor 
day, and half a dozen more days. Every pastor is 
besieged to introduce new topics for pulpit discus- 
sion and for the offerings of God's people until he 
is driven almost to the verge of insanity. If he 
were to respond to all the calls he would need to 
add a few Sundays to the year in order to com- 
plete the list. 

In our Sunday-schools also we are following the 
same tendency. One Sunday is practically Peter's 
day, another is John's, another is Paul's, another is 
David's, another is Romans' day, another is Cor- 
inthians' day, another is the Twenty-third Psalm 
day, another is Parable day, etc., etc., ad infinitum. 
If we are to have a Church year, that which is ob- 
served by Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Moravians 
is certainly preferable to that which has now been 
outlined. The topics contemplated for that year 
are drawn directly from the gospel ; they are such 
great themes as the incarnation, the resurrection, 



THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 335 

the descent of the Spirit, the Trinity, and similar 
great doctrines. We are obliged with great earnest- 
ness to resist the desire of Boards and committees 
to give a day to their special work, however im- 
portant it may be in itself. In this regard, as in 
the case of the festivals of the church, as they are 
now observed, we are to choose some and reject 
others. No man who favors the adoption of this 
modern church calendar can with consistency oppose 
the observance of a more reasonable, more histor- 
ical, and more scriptural church calendar such as 
this paper approves. 

4. A fourth reason for the observance of a modi- 
fied Church year is that it brings out into strong 
relief the historic side of Christianity. Christianity 
is now, and it always has been, attacked vigorously 
on its historic side. A wisely designed church 
calendar gives great prominence to the essential 
facts of Christian life and history. The Church 
year, with its most commendable cycles, antedated 
the present divisions of the church into Protestant 
and Roman, and so antedated the corruptions of 
the papal system. It was that abominable system 
which introduced the dangerous multiplication of 
these days. The papacy is a strange mingling of 
Paganism and Judaism. Romanism is a baptized 
mongrelism of the same ; and it was a Roman bap- 
tism — a mere sprinkling. In observing a reason- 
able Church year we are lifting up our voice 
against the additions of the papacy to the simplicity 
of the earlier practices. These observances are a 



33^ CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

constant protest against historic infidelity. They 
unite us with the earlier centuries in a true fellow- 
ship, and in primitive evangelical simplicity. By 
rejecting all such observances we practically submit 
to papal Mariolatry and Hagiolatry, allowing them 
to rob us of our privileges ; by observing these 
feasts in their fewness and simplicity, as they were 
observed in the early centuries before Romanism 
multiplied and degraded them, we declare our in- 
dependence of papalism and our loyalty to an 
evangelical and primitive simplicity. 

In this respect these observances stand to the 
historic reality and authority of the church, as the 
Fourth of July, the Twenty-second of February, and 
other great days, stand to the reality, authority, and 
development of the American Republic. They are 
to some degree monumental, as is the Lord's Sup- 
per. So long as Christmas and Easter are observed, 
two gigantic witnesses to the fundamental facts in 
our Lord's life will continue to give unimpeach- 
able testimony. In this respect we do well to em- 
phasize these great feasts. It must be admitted that 
where these more modern yearly feasts, so painfully 
multiplied by Romanism, are most constantly ob- 
served, the Sabbath is to some degree neglected ; 
but the more general observance of the earliest, the 
simple, the great festivals recently in the United 
States has not interfered with the observance of the 
Lord's Day. We have introduced many feasts into 
our American life, feasts that are purely national. 
In some parts of New England there are days of 



THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 337 

fasting and prayer, and our annual Thanksgiving 
Day, originating in New England, has now been 
adopted in nearly all parts of the Union, and has 
become practically a national institution ; and as 
the nation grows older, other holidays will be added. 
But no one will claim that the observance of Thanks- 
giving Day and similar days has interfered with the 
reverence which we pay to the Lord's Day. Neither 
will any one affirm that the observance of Good 
Friday would create less regard for the Lord's Day. 
Christmas and Easter are now kept by very many 
of our most devoted church people in the United 
States ; and without doubt Good Friday and Pente- 
cost will soon come to be observed with equal 
generality. Many denominations have united in 
union services on Good Friday in New York and 
in other cities, and the result has fully justified the 
practice. Good Friday has been made an occasion 
of general humiliation and prayer, and also of med- 
itation upon the atoning death of the Lord and 
Saviour. From personal experience your speaker 
can testify to the great value of calling attention on 
Good Friday evening to the history of our Lord's 
suffering in the garden, and his death upon the 
cross. The consideration of the events which that 
day sets forth at nine in the morning, at twelve 
o'clock noon, and at three in the afternoon, has 
made the weekly prayer meeting on that evening 
more solemn and blessed than any meeting of the 
year. We thus emphasize the privilege of all God's 
people to enjoy the inheritance which has come 



33& CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

from the early days of Christianity ; an inheritance 
of which we should not allow ourselves to be 
robbed by the vagaries and idolatries of the Roman 
Church. 

5. Another reason which may be named for fa- 
voring a modified observance of the Church year, is 
the influence of such an observance upon true Chris- 
tian union. This paper has no sympathy with the 
attempts to secure organic Christian union ; such 
union will never come, and if it did, as things now 
are, it would not be a blessing. If it ever comes it 
will begin at the baptistery, for all denominations 
accept the catholic rite of baptism. There are 
bodies organically united who in the essentials of 
faith are widely separated. There are denomina- 
tions whose different wings have less in common 
spiritually than have other bodies bearing different 
denominational names. We need a union in spirit 
rather than in form, an essential rather than an 
organic union. The observance of Christmas and 
Easter tends to such a unity. Differing consti- 
tutionally, educationally, and radically in every way 
from the Roman Church, your speaker joyfully con- 
fesses to some sense of unity in the common ob- 
servance of the great feasts — not the saints' days, 
often of very unsaintly sinners, nor other unwar- 
ranted additions to the primitive feasts — but the 
great and ancient feasts of the church universal. 
All bodies of Christians may commemorate the 
birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and 
the descent of the Holy Spirit. 



THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 339 

Because we endorse the Christmas and the Easter 
and the Pentecost cycles, we are not obliged to 
endorse Mariolatry and Hagiolatry. We have no 
right to allow our protest against Romanism to rob 
us of the inheritance which belongs to us as Bap- 
tists. It has been said that " Romanists are Papists 
and Episcopalians are Apists." Thank God, we 
Baptists are neither. We are older than either of 
these churches. Baptists belong, without a particle 
of doubt, to the catholic and apostolic church. 
Sprinkling and pouring are historically and literally 
ordinances of sects ; baptism is the true catholic 
and apostolic ordinance. Let us, who are the 
modern representatives of the primitive and apos- 
tolic church, not be robbed of our rights because 
of the abuse of these feasts by Roman and other 
bodies. If any ecclesiastical authority were to insist 
upon these observances, observances which are not 
distinctly commanded in the word of God, we should 
resist that assumption. On the other hand, if any 
ecclesiastical authority were to forbid our judicious 
observance of these days, again we should resist 
such an assumption. Let every man enjoy his 
liberty in this respect ; let no man unfairly criticise 
his brother ; let every man be fully persuaded in 
his own mind and so let him act. Dr. Schaff shows 
that even such eminent teachers in the early church 
as Chrysostom and Augustine emphasize the fact 
that the observance of these Christian feasts was 
always an act of evangelical freedom and never of 
legal constraint. 



340 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Some of us occasionally get letters somewhat as 
follows: " If you wish to wear a gown and observe 
Easter and other similar days, you had better leave 
the Baptist denomination." To such suggestions 
we make with equal earnestness, and we trust with 
more courtesy, this reply : "We wish to oblige you 
as far as possible ; but really you are asking too 
much. We are compelled to say we shall do noth- 
ing of the kind. The Baptist denomination is our 
denomination. We love it. We live for it ; and, 
if need be, we would even die for its principles. 
If there is any going out to be done, you can do it 
yourself." The man who is so unfraternal, unbap- 
tistic, and unscriptural as to cherish the spirit and 
make the remarks occasionally seen and heard, is 
the man who ought to go out, if any one must go. 

To the honor of the denomination it ought to be 
said that men of that spirit are becoming conspicu- 
ous for their fewness. Any man of sense can have 
in the Baptist denomination to-day all the liberty 
which he will ask. No denomination ought to be, 
and none is, so abreast of the thought alike of the 
first and the nineteenth centuries, as the Baptist. 
Men who go out seeking liberty, often find that 
they have gone into a prison rather than into a 
palace. In matters not commanded by Christ and 
his apostles, we have the right to exercise our 
Christian liberty. We shall not place the brother 
who does not choose to observe such times and 
seasons under the ban ; we shall not restrict his 
liberty ; we shall not refuse him our fellowship and 



THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 34 1 

fraternal regard. Neither must he deny the brother 
who in these respects chooses to exercise his liberty, 
that privilege. We have no faith in petty popes, 
whether in editorial or theological chairs ; whether 
on platforms or in pulpits. We shall not limit 
another brother's liberty, neither shall we suffer 
another brother to limit our liberty, — our liberty in 
and not against the gospel, — no, not for an hour. 



XV 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND 
STATE 1 

AN ARROGANT ASSUMPTION 

NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that we are 
in the closing years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, and in the United States, this is still a living 
subject. Questions which were supposed to have 
been exhaustively discussed and conclusively an- 
swered by our fathers have to be re-examined and 
the positions reached generations ago re-affirmed. 
In the Protestant Episcopal Church there is a party 
using all its influence to change the name of that 
church to the American Church. In almost every 
annual convocation of that body this party makes 
itself heard in its attempts to secure this result. 
In some of the religious papers published by that 
church, this name is constantly employed. 

This is one of the most striking examples of 
ecclesiastical assumption which our times furnish 
on either side of the Atlantic. One of the smallest 
of the sects thus appropriates to itself the name of 
the American Church, and so far unchurches every 

1 Delivered before the Home Mission Society, Philadelphia, May 
27, 1892. 
342 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 343 

other church ; most sectarian of the sects, it calls 
itself "The Church," and attempts to adopt a title 
suggestive of sole religious supremacy on this con- 
tinent. If the spirit thus manifested were incar- 
nated in the name of the church, as one faction 
desires, that church might properly be called the 
church of the Un-American Assumption. By what 
right is a bishop of one of its dioceses called Bishop 
of New York ? He certainly is not bishop of New 
York. No man can be a bishop in this country 
except over those who have elected him to that 
office. The Romanists have certainly not elected 
Dr. Potter to that office. With equal assumption 
they have their own bishop and archbishop. The 
Methodists have not elected him ; they have their 
own bishop, but with becoming modesty they give 
him a title which limits his claims and functions to 
the body by which he is elected and over which he 
presides. The Presbyterians have not elected him. 
The Baptists have not elected him ; they have their 
own bishops, using the title in its true New Testa- 
ment sense, as belonging to the pastors of separate 
and independent churches. The appropriation of 
these titles is a shadow in America of the power 
possessed by Episcopalians in England, where their 
church is by law established. It is here an eccle- 
siastical figment, as, according to the late Bishop 
Brooks, the so-called apostolic succession is a his- 
toric figment. 

The Roman Church, with equal assumption, 
manifests similar tendencies in our American life. 



344 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

It is constantly assuming positions, manifesting 
tendencies, and occasionally securing powers, en- 
tirely hostile to the true conception of the relation 
which should exist between Church and State. 
We have in this church a subtle, bold, aggressive, 
and unscrupulous Jesuitical party aiming at the 
possession of vast power at the cost to us of much 
which we hold dear as American citizens and as 
Bible Christians. We are in the midst of Jesuits, 
who have been driven by Catholic rulers from 
Catholic countries as foes to those countries, and 
who are here as plotters against civil and religious 
liberty — Jesuits whose boldness in some quarters 
is equaled only by their subtle machinations in 
other quarters. This party at this moment, it is 
said, is laying plans to secure a division of public 
moneys for the support of parochial schools. This 
fight is already upon us ; it has been opened in 
New Jersey also, and in Maryland, and it is in 
various phases waging in Canada. 

THIS IS A LIVING QUESTION. 

I am no alarmist ; but I agree with the late 
General Grant, who wisely said at Des Moines, 
Iowa, in 1876 : "If we are to have another con- 
test in the near future of our national experience, I 
predict that the dividing line will not be Mason 
and Dixon's, but it will be between patriotism and 
intelligence on the one side, and superstition, am- 
bition, and ignorance on the other." Several 
Protestant churches are now taking public money 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 345 

for the sectarian education of Indians. 1 The 
amount appropriated to Protestant denominations 
for this year is eighty thousand three hundred and 
fifty dollars, and to the Roman Church three hun- 
dred and sixty-five thousand and forty-five dollars. 
I am no pessimist, but neither do I wish to be 
blinded by an optimism which refuses to see ex- 
isting dangers and which rejects appropriate rem- 
edies. The subject is, then, a living question, a 
question which will demand and receive during the 
closing years of this century the earnest thought of 
the most patriotic and devout citizens of this great 
republic. It is fitting, therefore, that we should 
once more examine our positions, once more state 
our reasons, and once more affirm with unmistak- 
able emphasis our rights and our duties. 

Insistence on the entire separation of Church 
and State brings us, as citizens and Christians, into 
sympathy with the teachings of Christ and the 
apostles. Our Lord with rare wisdom recognized 
the authority of the State in all secular affairs. If 
ever there was a religious teacher marked by 
sanctified common sense, that teacher was Jesus 
Christ. We have not recognized as we ought his 
remarkable shrewdness, his holy adroitness, and his 
sacred cleverness. When an effort was made to 
entrap him and to secure from him a pronounce- 
ment which his foes could use against him, he 

1 This was true at the time, 1892. Since that, however, all the 
Protestant denominations have declined to receive appropriations, 
and the Roman Catholic Church is left alone [Ed.]. 



346 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

lightly stepped over the snares set for his feet, and 
soon involved his enemies in the toils which they 
had laid for him. He at once perceived their 
wickedness. They asked a question which they 
expected would place him in a hopeless dilemma. 
If he replied with an affirmative, all the Pharisees 
would announce that he favored paying tribute to 
Caesar. From this admission they would reason 
that his claims to be the Messianic King were 
ridiculous ; they would also charge him with being 
neither patriotic nor pious. But if he answered 
with a negative the Herodians would proceed im- 
mediately to Pilate and make charges against him 
as a usurper. 

The Romans cared little for the religious affairs 
of the Jewish people ; but of course they could 
not permit open revolt from their authority. 
Our Lord's answer was one of those great truths 
which go straight to the heart of the subject dis- 
cussed. Under the theocracy, duties to the civil 
and divine ruler were practically one ; but now that 
the hated Roman was civil ruler, the distinction be- 
tween civil obligations and religious requirements 
was of the utmost importance. Jesus here gave a 
great object-lesson on this subject. Holding up 
the coin, he emphasized obedience to Caesar in 
secular things and to God in sacred things. His 
enemies were confounded. Hostile as they were, 
they were obliged to acknowledge that he had 
placed them in the dilemma from which he had 
himself escaped. They saw also that he had de- 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 347 

clined to act the part of a political Messiah, and 
that he had fully answered a question as difficult 
as it was important. He here distinctly announced 
that there is a separation between the Church and 
the State. Later, in addressing Pilate, he affirmed 
that the legitimate powers of civil rulers were of 
divine origin. 

Peter and the other apostles echo the truths 
taught by Christ when, in their reply to those who 
commanded them not to teach in the name of 
Jesus (Acts 5 : 20), they said : "We ought to obey 
God rather than men." They thus made a direct 
appeal to the best instincts of their enemies, both 
as judges and as men. The Sanhedrin, claiming to 
be appointed by God, must have seen the force of 
this appeal, for all admitted that the authority of God 
was superior to that of man. The announcement 
of this principle has had important bearings on hu- 
man liberty from the first century even to the nine- 
teenth. The Apostle Paul in writing to the Romans 
recognizes the fact that the civil power has its 
rights, and also that those rights are delegated and 
limited. In the letters to Timothy and Titus, and 
also in the first Epistle of Peter, similar truths are 
taught, and similar courses of conduct are urged. 
It is affirmed in all these cases that when civil gov- 
ernment makes demands contrary to religious duties 
its authority is to be denied ; but in other cases its 
mandates are to be obeyed. Baptists to-day, in 
their insistence upon separation between Church 
and State, are in full harmony with the teachings of 



34§ CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Christ and the apostles. Our highest privilege is 
to be in all respects pupils of Jesus Christ and 
successors of the apostles. Standing beside him 
and them we know that we are right. Here we 
have ever stood ; and, God helping us, here we 
shall ever stand. 

THE GROWTH OF A STATE CHURCH. 

Insistence upon entire separation between 
Church and State brings us into sympathy with 
noble souls through all the centuries. The early 
Christians, as we have already seen, obeyed civil 
law in secular matters, but they dared to disobey 
when their Christian faith was in peril. Then they 
refused obedience and received punishment with 
Christian submission and with heroic endurance. 
Their persecutions arose chiefly from the ancient 
laws which forbade the worship of deities which 
the State did not recognize. The Roman govern- 
ment was tolerant of various religions when their 
representatives were quiescent; but when Chris- 
tians became active in propagating their faith they 
encountered fierce civil opposition. It is certain 
that some of these early Christians were soldiers 
and that others held various offices under the gov- 
ernment; but they believed that their positions 
were not inconsistent with their Christian faith. 

With the conversion of Constantine we enter 
upon a new era in the relation between Church 
and State. Then privileges were granted to the 
officers of the church, giving them rights similar to 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 349 

those which had previously been enjoyed by pagan 
priests. The first exhibition of State-churchism is 
thus a direct result of pagan ideas introduced into 
the church. The emperor soon became known as 
Pontifex Maximus. Constantine did not hesitate 
to place the cross on one side of the coins in use, 
and the symbol of the sun-god on the other side. 
The emperors soon came to consider themselves as 
patrons of the church. It is true that prominent 
teachers, such as Ambrose, Jerome, and others, 
vigorously denied the right of the emperors to 
pronounce on religious questions and duties. Thus 
the conflict between bishops and emperors con- 
tinued, now one and now the other exercising the 
greater authority. In 494 Bishop Gelasius affirmed 
the superiority of the ecclesiastical over the secular 
power; and in 502 Bishop Symmachus resisted the 
assumptions of King Odoacer over the rights of 
ecclesiastical officers. 

Charlemagne conceived the idea of a universal 
Christian monarchy ; and he considered it his right 
to oppose or to endorse the election of even the 
pope, as well as that of the bishops. His succes- 
sors, however, were too weak to carry into effect the 
ideas which he had first promulgated. From this 
time the popes increased their powers at the ex- 
pense of those of the emperors. But in the ninth 
and tenth centuries the papal throne was nearly 
overthrown by the immoralities of some of the 
popes ; and as a result the imperial power again 
greatly increased. About the middle of the elev- 



350 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

enth century Hildebrand put forth exorbitant claims 
for the papal see ; and soon the power of the em- 
perors in the election of popes was annulled and 
given to the college of cardinals. Under the 
name of Gregory VII., Hildebrand, in 1073, took 
his seat upon the papal throne, and boldly claimed 
that the church was the highest power in the world, 
and that the secular governments owed their exist- 
ence to the permission of the church. These as- 
sumptions led to unceasing conflicts with the Ger- 
man emperor, especially as the views of Gregory 
were maintained by Alexander III. and Innocent 
III. Boniface VIII. , in his famous bull, " Unam 
Sanctam" held the belief that it was necessary to 
salvation to believe that the Roman popes had 
power over everything earthly; but he suffered 
severely for his extraordinary assumptions thus ex- 
pressed. His own death, the transfer of the papal 
see to Avignon, and the great schism, were the 
direct fruits of the unholy seed which Boniface 
had sown. One of the Avignon popes revoked 
this blasphemous bull, as far as concerned France, 
although it was afterward restored by Leo X v in 

1 5 16. 

When we come to the time of the Reformation, 
we find all these principles entering vigorously into 
the grave discussions of the hour. Luther and 
Calvin, Zwinglius and Melancthon, and others, con- 
demned the claims of the Church of Rome. At 
times they saw the truth, but through a glass 
darkly ; at other times they were involved in hope- 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 35 I 

less confusion and seemingly in Egyptian dark- 
ness. Some of their writings show that they wished 
to keep the two powers separate, and that they 
favored the government of the church by the 
church ; but, as many Reformers clung to the idea 
of a Christian State, whose magistrates had a right 
to punish heresy, there was no clear teaching re- 
garding separation of Church and State. I do not 
charge Calvin with the execution of Servetus ; but 
I have a right to rebuke him for not exercising the 
power which he possessed to prevent that execu- 
tion. State Churchism came finally to be estab- 
lished in the Lutheran and Reformed countries. 
The Roman Church used force to suppress Protes- 
tantism ; Protestantism therefore justified itself in 
using force to maintain its existence. Rationalism 
and infidelity later exercised some influence in re- 
stricting the power of the church. The French 
Revolution, in 1789, shook ecclesiastical structures 
to their very foundations. The Congress of Vienna, 
in 181 5, led eventually to the recognition of Lu- 
theran and Reformed churches, as well as Roman, 
as State churches in different countries. 

PRECIOUS TRUTHS MAINTAINED BY BAPTISTS. 

The persecutions in the Old World, which drove 
many dissenters to the New World, opened the dis- 
cussion afresh on the virgin soil of America. All 
through these bloody periods there were brave 
Baptists who saw, who held, and who were willing 
to die for the truth. They held substantially the 



352 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

principles which are maintained by Baptists to this 
hour. They opposed infant baptism, which was the 
cause of many of the greatest evils which ever dis- 
honored the pages of church history. They con- 
demned vigorously the doctrine of salvation by 
baptism. Among these were the Paulicians of 
Eastern Europe, and the Petrobrusians and Henri- 
cians in the West. They vigorously preached the 
Baptist doctrines of salvation by faith alone. They 
saw that infant baptism was responsible in large 
part for the union of Church and State, and also 
for the bloody persecutions which resulted from 
that union. In the times of the Reformation these 
truer disciples of Christ were numerous in Switzer- 
land, Bavaria, the Tyrol, the Rhine country, and 
the Netherlands. They rightly denied their nick- 
name of Anabaptists, declaring that infant baptism 
was no baptism at all. They were men of civil 
virtue as well as of spiritual purity. They were 
put to death by hundreds for their evangelical 
faith, so that no Christian body has given so many 
martyrs to the faith of a pure gospel as has the 
Baptist. The idea that only converted persons 
should belong to the church was originally, dis- 
tinctively, and exclusively a Baptist tenet ; so was 
the doctrine that infant baptism was not necessary 
to save dying infants. Infant baptism is one of the 
darkest and dreariest superstitions that ever afflicted 
the church ; and the history of its observance is 
one of the most horrible chapters in the annals of 
Christianity. 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 353 

In bearing testimony against infant baptism and 
in favor of infant salvation, Baptists also testified to 
the doctrine of separation between Church and 
State. This testimony was not merely a lucky 
thought of astute Baptist philosophers ; it was the 
logical outcome of distinctive Baptist principles. 
How came they to be so much wiser than all other 
religious bodies ? Their wisdom lay in the fact 
that they grasped the great principles laid down 
by Christ and the apostles. They preceded all 
others in declaring the true relations between civil 
and ecclesiastical bodies, because they held correct 
scriptural principles, while all others were involved 
in the meshes of unscriptural tenets. Baptists thus 
were the first to condemn the use of force in re- 
ligion. Down to a comparatively late date, if a 
man said that the civil magistrate should not inter- 
fere in strictly religious matters, it was known 
thereby that he was a Baptist. Most Protestant 
churches have now come to the adoption of these 
views which once were exclusively Baptist doc- 
trines. 

The Baptist who does not rejoice in the history 
of his denomination must be pitiably ignorant or 
he must be hopelessly unappreciative of Christian 
intelligence and heroic endurance. Such a Baptist 
must have a vast amount of ignorance in his brains, 
or of iced-water instead of good red blood in his 
veins. A glance over the brilliant path which 
Baptist heroes and martyrs have made through the 
dark centuries will arouse in all our people a holy 

x 



354 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

enthusiasm for the loyal adherence of our fathers 
to the word of God, and for the heroic faith which 
made them willing to do or die in support of the 
truths they held. We would be unworthy sons of 
these noble and sainted sires if we did not bless 
God for their lives, if we did not consecrate our- 
selves afresh to the maintenance of the principles 
for which they were willing to go to the dungeon 
and the rack, to the gibbet and the stake. In this 
land of freedom we put the crown of our gratitude 
and of their enduring fame on the brows of these 
martyred and sainted heroes. 

I have shown that insistence upon separation 
between Church and State brings us into sympathy 
with the teachings of Christ and the apostles, and 
also with noble souls through all the centuries. 
We are now prepared to see that this principle 
brings us into sympathy with the foremost thinkers 
of our day on both sides of the Atlantic, and that 
it especially emphasizes the duties and privileges of 
a patriotic Americanism. 

AMERICAN INFLUENCE. 

With the Declaration of Independence the abso- 
lute separation of Church and State was intended 
to be established in this republic. Then all forms 
of belief secured legal equality in this land. The 
growth of our churches under the influence of this 
principle has widely affected political and religious 
thinking in the Old World. Independence of the 
State is now claimed by many religionists in Euro- 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 355 

pean lands, and the claim is emphasized by political 
parties, which insist upon this separation as a plank 
in their platforms. Occasionally contradictory in- 
terests unite in demanding this separation. The 
High Church party in Great Britain desires separa- 
tion in order to give the Church release from her 
bondage to the State, that she may be free to in- 
troduce High Church practices which the State 
now condemns. Nonconformists at this point, 
though for widely different reasons, join hands with 
the representatives of the High Church. The fore- 
most political thinkers in Scotland and Wales are 
now earnestly agitating these questions. The Church 
of England has been disestablished in Ireland ; and 
the Church of Scotland, without doubt, soon will be 
disestablished in Scotland. Wales will follow in 
throwing off the ecclesiastical yoke, and England 
herself cannot long refuse to walk in line in this 
march of progress. 

The British government is now inflicting a great 
wrong upon all Nonconformists. What right has a 
government to discriminate among religions? What 
right have certain religious teachers to receive sal- 
aries from the State ? What right has the govern- 
ment to legislate for a national church ? What right 
to sit in judgment upon creeds? What right to 
prefer one denomination over another? These 
questions must be answered, and they will soon be 
answered at the ballot-box in every land. 

Even under the shadow of the Roman Church 
the principle of separation between Church and 



356 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

State has found earnest advocates. The brave and 
brilliant Cavour lifted up his eloquent voice for a 
"free Church in a free State." So has Baron 
Ricasoli. These are some of the stirring words 
in a letter dated November 26, 1866 : 

In the United States every citizen is free to follow the 
persuasion that he may think best, and to worship the 
Divinity in the form that may seem to him most appropri- 
ate. Side by side with the Catholic Church rises the Prot- 
estant temple, the Mussulman mosque, the Chinese pagoda. 
Side by side with the Romish clergy the Genevan consistory 
and the Methodist assembly exercise their office. This 
state of things generates neither confusion nor clashing. 
And why is this ? Because no religion asks either special 
protection or privileges from the State. . . The bishops 
cannot be considered among us as simple pastors of souls, 
since they are at the same time the instruments and de- 
fenders of a power at variance with the national aspirations. 
The civil power is therefore constrained to impose those 
measures upon the bishops which are necessary to preserve 
its rights and those of the nation. How is it possible to 
terminate this deplorable and perilous conflict between the 
two powers^between Church and State? Let us render 
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar' s, and unto God the 
things that are God' s, and peace between Church and State 
will be troubled no more. 

DANGERS AND DUTIES. 

We are confronted at this moment by practical 
dangers and pressing duties in our own beloved 
land. We have all seen that separation between 
Church and State was one of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of our Constitution, and that great instru- 
ment insisted on perfect freedom of worship and 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 357 

the protection of each religious body in the exer- 
cise of its religious rights, so far as they did not 
interfere with the rights of others, or violate ac- 
cepted moral laws. It is clear that it was the in- 
tention of the Constitution that the government 
should not show special favor toward any religious 
body or to any set of denominational opinions. 
This view is clearly deducible from the deliverance 
of the Convention of 1787; but several of the 
States deemed it important to adopt amendments 
which should make this cardinal principle more 
unmistakable and emphatic. As a result the first 
amendment reads as follows : ''Congress shall make 
no law respecting an establishment of religion or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Although 
the several States retained the right to make ap- 
propriations for sectarian purposes, the feeling 
throughout the country was so earnestly against 
such appropriations that a direct prohibition was 
not deemed necessary by the different States. For 
many years there has been a growing sentiment in 
favor of an amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States which should specifically emphasize 
the absolute separation between civil government 
and the ecclesiastical authority, and which shall 
forbid granting public moneys to sectarian schools 
or charities. Doubtless this matter will come be- 
fore the New York Constitutional Convention which 
will soon be held. The separation of Church and 
State has secured for us many of the greatest bless- 
ings which have marked our history. 



35^ CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The writer has the honor of belonging to the 
National League for the Protection of American In- 
stitutions, and he has been somewhat familiar with 
the discussions in that body, which have led to the 
preparation of what is known as the Sixteenth 
Amendment. As early as 1875, President Grant 
proposed an amendment of this character. Intro- 
duced into the House by Mr. Blaine, it was passed 
by an overwhelming majority ; but unfortunately it 
was defeated in the Senate. In 1876 the National 
Republican Convention at Cincinnati, and the Na- 
tional Democratic Convention at St. Louis, inserted 
in their respective platforms planks committing 
them to the doctrine which President Grant had 
suggested. The National League already named 
has been specially active during the past few years 
in pressing this Sixteenth Amendment, and on Jan- 
uary 18, 1892, on behalf of the National League, 
the Hon. William M. Springer, of Illinois, intro- 
duced in the House of Representatives, a memorial 
and petition for the passage of the proposed Six- 
teenth Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States. This amendment is as follows : 

No State shall pass any law respecting an establishment 
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or use 
its property or credit, or any money raised by taxation, or 
authorize either to be used, for the purpose of founding, 
maintaining, or aiding, by appropriation, payment of serv- 
ices, expenses, or otherwise, any church, religious denom- 
ination, or religious society, or any institution, society, or 
undertaking which is wholly or in part under sectarian or 
ecclesiastical control. 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 359 

On the same day Senator Piatt, of Connecticut, 
introduced the same memorial and petition in the 
Senate. Each house referred the matter to its 
Committee on Judiciary. 

Several considerations led to the preparation and 
presentation of this proposed amendment. One 
of its objects is to prevent the admission of Utah 
to the Union until she is purged of her abominable 
Mormonism. This amendment raises a barrier 
against the effort to legalize the Mormon hierarchy, 
and to make it a part of the government of the 
State. Two churches, the Mormon and the Roman, 
are to-day practically attempting to destroy the 
time-honored principle of separation between Church 
and State. The Mormons are determined to main- 
tain the union of Church and State in Utah ; and 
the Roman Church joins hands with the Mormon 
Church to destroy this distinctive principle of 
Americanism. 

There is no denomination which can so consist- 
ently oppose the Roman Church as the Baptist. 
We have ever championed the right of soul-liberty, 
even at the cost of imprisonment and death ; we 
have ever denied the right of the State to dictate 
as to our duties to God ; we have ever insisted on 
the distinction between Church and State as laid 
down by Christ and his apostles. We have denied 
the " compact of the priest and potentate to crush 
the rights of conscience ; the combination of legal 
and prelatical tyranny to repress true religion." 
We have ever denied the right of civil rulers to 



360 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

make assessments and to raise money for the support 
of sectarian principles ; we have ever denied the 
right of government either to patronize or to coerce 
a denomination ; we have ever scorned to accept 
toleration as a substitute for liberty ; we have ever 
affirmed that religious freedom is an utter misnomer 
wherever the unhallowed union between Church 
and State exists. The time is opportune to reaffirm 
these great principles, and to declare our fealty to 
Christ and the apostles in their teaching on this 
subject, our sympathy with our Baptist fathers 
through the ages, and our endorsement of the brave 
men in all countries and denominations in our own 
day, who are standing for the maintenance of the 
separation between Church and State. The Roman 
Church is to be dreaded and resisted in her en- 
croachments upon American liberty at this very 
hour. 

The Sixteenth Amendment ought to be passed, 
and become a part of our glorious Constitution. 
We do not say that the Roman Church has not the 
right, as things now are, to the large amount of 
money which she is receiving for Indian education, 
providing she makes true reports of the number of 
pupils under her care. The Presbyterian, the Meth- 
odist, the Episcopal, the Lutheran, the Congrega- 
tional, and other churches, have erred with the 
Roman Church in accepting public money for sec- 
tarian instruction. The largest sum has gone to the 
Roman Church, for the reason that by various 
processes that church has reported the greatest 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 36 1 

number of children as under her instruction. So 
long as other bodies take this money, and so long 
as the appropriations are made on the per capita 
principle, and so long as the Roman Church reaches, 
or so claims, as many children as all these other bodies 
combined, so long will she have a claim to this larger 
sum of money. The total amount appropriated 
has been more than half a million dollars annu- 
ally. The trouble is with the entire system ; it is 
wrong in principle and it is vicious in practice. It 
is inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution ; 
and if brought to the test of the courts, it is quite 
likely that these appropriations would be pronounced 
illegal. Several churches have in their various 
convocations passed resolutions against taking this 
public money for sectarian schools ; but somehow, 
in most cases, the amounts are still reported as 
appropriated. We here affirm that no body of 
Christians has a right to receive public money for 
sectarian instruction. The Protestant bodies, that 
have taken this money and are opposed to grants 
for parochial schools in different States, have' acted 
with utter inconsistency. They have taken all that 
they could get from the public treasury for the 
support of denominational schools among Indians, 
while they are opposed to giving the Romanists 
public moneys for their parochial schools. Baptists 
give their greetings to all churches that have de- 
clared that they will no longer receive public funds 
for sectarian uses ; and we hope that they will be 
true to their reported declarations. The attitude 



362 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

of the Roman Church regarding the so-called 
"Freedom of Worship Bill" in New York shows, 
on the one hand, the danger to which we are ex- 
posed, and on the other hand, the pernicious ac- 
tivity of that church. That church under this bill 
is determined to establish Roman ceremonies and 
teachings in State institutions supported, in whole 
or in part, by the whole body of taxpayers, insti- 
tutions that ought to remain forever non-sectarian. 
The discrimination made in favor of the Roman 
Church in this regard is a blot upon the history of 
New York State, and an outrage which no fair- 
minded American can impassionately contemplate. 
The Roman Church is determined also to violate 
the time-honored principle of separation between 
Church and State in its effort to secure public 
moneys for its parochial schools. It is, without 
doubt, the determination of that church to secure 
this end. Archbishop Corrigan and Archbishop 
Ireland are aiming at the same end, though they 
desire to reach it by different methods ; the first is 
open, bold, and defiant ; the latter is subtle, skill- 
ful, and politic. The Roman Church is the ill- 
concealed or openly avowed foe of the public 
school system. A few quotations from her own 
recognized authorities show clearly her hostility to 
the civil power as well as to the public schools : 
"The people are not the source of civil power." 1 
"Education outside the control of the Roman 
Catholic Church is a damnable heresy." 2 "The 
1 Pius IX., Enc. 39. 2 Pope's Syllabus. 



SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE 363 

Roman Church has a right to interfere in the dis- 
cipline of the public schools, and in the arrange- 
ment of the studies of the public schools, and in 
the choice of teachers for these schools." * " Pub- 
lic schools open to all children for the education of 
the young should be under the control of the 
Roman Church, and should not be subject to the 
civil power, nor made to conform to the opinions 
of the age." 2 "The Catechism alone is essential 
for the education of the people." 3 "The common 
school system of the United States is the worst in 
the world." 4 "The public schools have produced 
nothing but a godless generation of thieves and 
blackguards." 5 "I frankly confess that the Cath- 
olics stand before the country as the enemies of 
the public schools." 6 Later declarations betray a 
similar hostility ; the modified endorsement of Mgr. 
Satolli is practically opposition to our schools. 

We are prepared to say that no parochial school 
can give the training which our public schools fur- 
nish. Public schools should be the great kinder- 
gartens of true American patriotism. The Sixteenth 
Amendment will receive the endorsement of intel- 
ligent Americans in all parts of our broad land. 
The National League has among its supporters 
many of the most prominent men in different de- 
nominations in the country, including statesmen, 
jurists, divines, authors, college presidents, students 

1 Pope Pius IX., Enc. 45. 2 Pope Pius IX., Enc. 47. 
3 Cardinal Antonelli. 4 Cardinal Manning. 

5 Priest Schauer. 6 Father Phelan. 



364 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

of political science, philanthropists, and patriots. 
In all these great movements for the maintenance 
of liberty, and for all that is noblest and divinest in 
Americanism, Baptists, alike by their principles and 
history, will be leaders. The denomination which 
gave us many brave heroes and martyrs in the mid- 
dle ages, and which gave us John Clark, Obadiah 
Holmes, and James Crandall in Boston in 165 1 ; 
which gave us Clay, Pickett, and the Craigs ; which 
gave us the heroic Ireland, who preached the gospel 
through the bars of the Culpeper prison ; which 
gave us Roger Williams and a host more whose 
names, honored in America and glorified in heaven, 
time would fail me to enumerate, will ever march 
in the forefront for American liberty, and for the 
right to worship God according to the dictates of 
conscience. 

Baptists will ever be ready to say, with that bril- 
liant statesman, James G. Blaine: "It seems to me 
that this [school] question ought to be settled in 
some definite and comprehensive way, and the only 
settlement that can be final is the complete victory 
for non-sectarian schools. I am sure this will be 
demanded by the American people at all hazard, 
and at any cost" ; and with the illustrious Grant : 
" Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, 
the church, and the private school supported en- 
tirely by private contribution. Keep the Church 
and the State forever separate." 



XVI 

THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 1 

HISTORY is stranger than prophecy; God's 
facts are more wonderful than man's fan- 
cies. The quarter of a century which fittingly 
closed with the death of General Grant is the most 
remarkable period of twenty-five years in the his- 
tory of the race. This statement is true as it is 
strong. You may carefully examine the history of 
Oriental nations, the history of Greece and Rome, 
of France and Germany, of Italy and Austria, of 
Great Britain and all her colonies, and the previous 
history of the United States, and you will find no 
period of twenty-five years in which so many great 
social, political, and moral questions were anxiously 
asked and rightly answered, as during the period 
already named. The only possible exception, and 
that exception is a matter of interpretation, is the 
period marking the birth, death, and resurrection 
of Jesus Christ. 

We are always disposed to depreciate the present. 
We see the past veiled in the mists of memory, 
mists which soften its deformities and magnify its 
beauties. We see the future radiant with the 
splendor of hope ; but the present is, to most ob- 

1 Delivered before the American Baptist Home Mission Society, 
at Saratoga, May 23, 1894. 

365 



366 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

servers, insignificant, threadbare, and commonplace. 
We stand too near its great events rightly to appre- 
ciate their intrinsic or relative importance. We 
need historic perspective to enable us to see cur- 
rent movements in their historic relations. Every 
traveler visiting the valley of Chamouni and gazing 
for the first time on Mont Blanc, experiences dis- 
appointment. The mountain is not so high, not so 
vast, not so majestic, as he had supposed. He 
forgets that the valley itself is three thousand four 
hundred feet above the level of the sea and more 
than two thousand feet above Lake Geneva ; he 
forgets that the mountain is surrounded with snow- 
capped, white-robed, and cloud-kissed attendants, 
themselves beautiful and majestic. Not until he 
has driven on the magnificent road to Geneva, and 
has looked back upon the mountain lifting its 
crystal domes and glittering spires fifteen thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-one feet into God's clear 
blue or losing themselves amid the clouds, will he 
appreciate its grandeur and glory as the king of 
the Alps ; he will be ready then to say with Lord 
Byron : 

Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains ; 
They crowned him long ago 

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, 
With a diadem of snow. 

Two brothers-in-law of mine were in the battle 
of Gettysburg. They have often spoken of the 
humdrum duties and commonplace routine which 
marked much of the time during that battle and 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 367 

other terrible battles of those historic days. They 
knew that they were participating in one of the 
decisive battles of the world, and yet amid their 
daily routine and commonplace duty it was hard 
to realize that they were making immortal history. 
We are so often blinded by the smoke and deaf- 
ened by the din of battle in our everyday life, 
that we fail rightly to appreciate the movements 
of the great forces which are making for the good 
of men and the glory of God. It has been said 
that "Memory's geese are all swans." The great 
Burke lamented over the mediocre character of 
statesmen and orators in his day ; but we all are 
ready to say of the men of his day, and of other 
similar epochs, "There were giants in those days." 

We have only to think of some of the great 
events which occurred during the third quarter of 
the present century to appreciate their greatness. 
We saw during this period all Germany united into 
one great empire ; we saw France devastated by 
war, and recuperating with a rapidity as surprising 
as it was delightful ; we saw Italy united, the tem- 
poral power of the pope forever destroyed, and 
Victor Emmanuel riding in triumph into the eternal 
city as king of United Italy. We saw Alexander 
the Second of Russia issuing his imperial ukase 
and giving liberty to more than forty million serfs. 
And we have seen the greatest civil war of the 
world waged on our shores, the chains of bondage 
stricken from four million American slaves, and we 
have heard the song of liberty rolling across this 



368 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

land from the mighty Atlantic to the mightier Pa- 
cific, chanted by rejoicing millions, with the music 
of both oceans as its sublime accompaniment 

But we have not yet fully appreciated the signifi- 
cance of the emancipation of the American Negro. 
Generations hence historians will set this great 
event in its true light. It will be hundreds of years 
before the characters of Seward, Grant, Lincoln, and 
other American heroes and statesmen, will be appre- 
ciated at their true value. It requires great lapses 
of time rightly to estimate any great character of 
history ; we are only now learning truly to judge 
Martin Luther, William the Silent, and Oliver 
Cromwell. Carlyle, in 1846, gave the world, for 
the first time, a true conception of the majestic 
Oliver Cromwell, the greatest man England has yet 
produced. The coming historian will yet show us 
that the memory of Abraham Lincoln has lifted 
itself like a mighty dome over the American Re- 
public — a dome through which the sun shines by 
day and the moon and stars by night, guiding this 
republic along a pathway of honor and glory to the 
first place among the nations of the earth. 

Thus it comes to pass that the historian of to-day 
cannot truly describe the significance of the birth of 
a race from the death of slavery into the life and 
liberty of freedom ; but some elements of that trans- 
formation we even now may justly consider. 

MANHOOD OF THE NEGRO. 

The Negro race, by the emancipation proclama- 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 369 

tion, was born again to manhood. Slavery made the 
Negro a chattel ; but freedom made the Negro a 
human being. Slavery made him a thing ; freedom 
made him a man. On that first day of January, 1863, 
the manhood, which had so long been taken from the 
black man, was gloriously and divinely restored. 
Mr. Lincoln long hesitated regarding the expediency 
of publishing this proclamation. Even nine days 
before the issuance of the preliminary proclamation, 
on September 22, 1862, he declared that such a 
proclamation was inexpedient, impracticable, and 
impossible. But the hand of God was in this move- 
ment. Guiding the hand which wrote the proclama- 
tion was a hand bearing in its palm the print of a 
nail received on the cross of Calvary. White men 
declared that the war was " a white man's war," but 
God practically declared that it was a war for the 
emancipation of the black man. Southerners af- 
firmed that the war was for the maintenance of 
State Rights, men of the North that it was a war 
for the preservation of the Union ; but the great 
God taught us that the Union could be preserved 
only as the slave was liberated, and that if slavery 
did not go, the Union must go. Mr. Lincoln 
aimed to preserve the Union, with or without slav- 
ery. Strictly speaking, in his public acts and utter- 
ances up to this time, he was not an Abolitionist ; 
but he found that if slavery did not go the Union 
could not remain. Almighty God crowned the 
final emancipation proclamation with the blessing 
of sublime victories on the field of battle. 

Y 



370 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The restoration of the Negro to a consciousness 
of his manhood was in harmony with the teaching 
of the Bible. During the first half of this present 
century numerous writers on ethnology, philology, 
and theology, strenuously urged that the Negro did 
not belong to the human family. The cruel treat- 
ment to which he was subjected was in harmony 
with this unscientific, unscriptural, and inhuman 
teaching. Thank God, the day has passed when 
science, falsely so-called, shall be employed to de- 
grade and dehumanize any member of our race. 
Thank God, the day has passed when the Bible will 
be used as a missile to strike the crown of manhood 
from the noble, though sable, brow of a being made 
in the image of God. In the very first chapter of 
Genesis the unity of the human race is implied. 
After the flood, as we learn by the eleventh chapter 
of Genesis, " the whole earth was of one language, 
and of one speech." This statement clearly teaches 
that there was but one nationality, and implies that 
this nationality was of one blood. In the Apostle 
Paul's magnificent sermon on Mars Hill, he teaches 
us that God made of one blood all nations of men. 
Biblical scholarship, it is safe to affirm, will never 
again deny the humanity of the Negro, and never 
again strive to place him outside the human family. 

The belief in the manhood of the Negro is in 
harmony with all that we know of the antiquity of 
his race. The word Ethiopia, the biblical Cush, is 
probably used to describe those whose color was 
black and whose blood was akin to that of the 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 37 1 

Negro; the word Ethiopian means "sunburned." 
We know that the Negro race can be traced to a 
period three thousand years before the birth of 
Christ Colonel G. W. Williams, to whom I am 
indebted for several historic allusions, has shown 
in his " Histoiy of the Negro Race in America," 
that monuments are found in a Theban tomb 
which show both the antiquity and the dignity 
of the Negro people. There a Negress, who ap- 
parently is a princess, is represented as drawn by 
oxen whose driver and groom are red-colored 
Egyptians. 

A belief in the manhood of the Negro is also in 
harmony with all the achievements of his race. 
These achievements are both numerous and endur- 
ing. He has an honorable place on the monu- 
ments, in the temples, and on the pyramids of the 
older races of the earth. He won fame in the 
armies of Egypt under Sesostris, and in the vast 
armies of Xerxes. Herodotus makes eighteen of the 
Egyptian kings to have been Ethiopians. Some of 
the idols in Japan are represented as woolly-haired 
Negroes ; so are some idols in Siam ; and Osiris in 
Egypt is frequently represented as being black. 
And in some countries Vishnu and Buddha are rep- 
resented with Negro features. Some writers have 
supposed that the wife of Moses was a Negress ; and 
Dr. James Hamilton speaks of her as a "sable prin- 
cess." We know that "hoary Meroe," with which 
city Moses as a soldier was brought into contact, 
was the chief city of the Negroes on the Nile. 



372 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Before Romulus founded Rome, and even before 
Homer, 

The blind old man of Scio' s rocky isle, 

sang on the shores of the Mediterranean of the 
glories of Greece, Meroe was a city of splendor 
and glory. The private and public buildings, the 
colossal walls and stupendous gates of Meroe made 
it famous among the cities of the world. Its in- 
ventive genius and varied scholarship made it the 
cradle of civilization, and the mother of art. Meroe 
was the queenly city of Ethiopia ; here learning- 
found a home ; and to this city great caravans 
brought silver and gold, ivory and frankincense 
and other rich products from all parts of Africa. 
Negroes seem to have been the builders of the city 
of Thebes, with its hundred gates, its wonderful 
temples, and its glorious palaces — Thebes which 
supplanted Memphis, the ancient capital of the 
Pharaohs. Ethiopia probably gave learning to 
Egypt, Egypt to Greece, Greece to Rome, and 
Rome to Britain, and Britain to the world. Mar- 
velous was the Negro civilization of that early day. 
There are, it is said, not fewer than one hundred 
and thirty-seven tribes of Negroes represented in 
America to-day. Some of these, no doubt, and 
perhaps the majority of them, were of the lower 
order of Negroes ; but others were of the regal 
races of Africa. Out of the thirty millions of souls 
who during three hundred and sixty years were 
dragged from Africa, and about one-half of whom 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 373 

survived the horrors of slave-ships, many were the 
descendants of the imperial Ethiopians of "the 
brave days of old." Echoes of that far-off time 
and of those superb achievements must have floated 
through the memory of slaves as they toiled under 
the master's lash in the fields of the Sunny South. 

SOLDIERSHIP OF THE NEGRO. 

The Negro, by the Emancipation Proclamation, 
was born again to soldiership. The Negro lost his 
early greatness by forgetting God and practising 
idolatry. The Negro was degraded as the result 
of sin ; but he was not so degraded as to be in- 
different to the possibilities awaiting human en- 
deavor on the American continent. It is a most 
interesting fact that the first blood shed during the 
American Revolution was the blood of a Negro. 
There was much discussion in those early days as 
to the wisdom of arming the Negroes. England 
sent many slaves to the American plantations, and 
the part which these slaves should take when hos- 
tilities began was very important. It is instructive 
to study the records of that early day and to ob- 
serve the solicitude manifested and the embarrass- 
ment experienced by the American colonists. On 
the second day of October, 1750, the Boston " Ga- 
zette" called attention to a "Runaway," " a Molatto 
Fellow, about twenty-seven years old, six feet two 
inches high." Twenty years later the name of this 
slave once more appeared in the journals of Boston. 
This time he was not advertised as a " Runaway," 



374 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

but the papers wrote of him in glowing terms as a 
Negro patriot, soldier, and martyr. On March 5, 
1770, occurred the Boston Massacre. This manly- 
looking fellow, Crispus Attucks, was a commanding 
figure among the irate colonists. As our Negro 
author tells us, he had listened to the fiery elo- 
quence of Otis, the convincing arguments of Sewall, 
and the tender pleadings of Belknap, until the sacred 
fires of patriotism burned in his soul. He led in 
the bloody drama which opened an eventful and 
thrilling chapter in American history. He attacked 
the "main-guard" of the ministerial army; then 
Captain Preston's guns were discharged, and the 
brave Attucks went down before the terrible fire. 
They did well to bury him from Faneuil Hall, so 
fittingly called "the cradle of liberty." Four 
hearses bore to one grave the bodies of Attucks, 
Caldwell, Gray, and Maverick. 

Negroes responded to every call to arms from Mas- 
sachusetts Bay to Lake Champlain. Every North- 
ern colony had its troops of Negroes ; and, with 
the exception of the black regiment of Rhode 
Island, they were not in separate organizations. 
At first only free Negroes were admitted into the 
army ; but before the war closed Negroes were 
purchased and sent into the war with the offer of 
freedom and fifty dollars bounty at the close of 
their service. At Bunker Hill the Negroes dis- 
played bravery of the highest order ; and Bancroft 
gives just praise to the heroic Negroes who partici- 
pated in this battle. Major Pitcairn, the gallant 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 375 

officer of the British marines, led the charge against 
the redoubt, shouting, ''The day is ours!" His 
presence intimidated many of the soldiers who con- 
fronted him, and at this critical moment Peter 
Salem, a private in Col. Nixon's regiment of the 
Continental Army, dashed forward and shot down 
the advancing major. Peter Salem was then a 
slave, but the sense of liberty made him a hero on 
that historic occasion. Salem Poor was another 
Negro soldier who won for himself fame and glory 
at Bunker Hill. In the war of 1812, there was no 
doubt as to the help which the Negroes could 
render in battle. In the battle of New Orleans, 
in the battle on Lake Erie, and in other of the great 
battles of the period, the Negro has an honorable 
place. The brush of the painter has given him his 
deserved share of praise by placing him in the 
painting commemorating Perry's victory, the superb 
painting hanging in the Capitol of the Nation. 

In the great Civil War he had his place, and 
won glory which will never be taken from him. 
Slavery found its apologists in every rank of society. 
Even the pulpit of Lyman Beecher and that of the 
great Channing was practically silent regarding the 
sin of slavery. Apologists of slavery were found in 
Stuart of Andover, in Alexander of Princeton, and 
in scores of other men in pulpits and theological 
chairs ; but brave men were not wanting who lifted 
up their voices like trumpets in many parts of the 
land. Parker, Lovejoy, Birney, the immortal John 
Brown, Lundy, Garrison, Phillips, and a host of 



37^ CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

other heroes and patriots were heard against the 
sin of slavery and regarding the hope of freedom. 
No man can pronounce the names of Fort Harri- 
son, Port Hudson, Port Royal, and Fort Wagner, 
without recalling the bravery of Negro troops. 

Nearly a decade after the battle of Fort Harri- 
son, September 29, 1864, where Negroes made 
one of the most brilliant charges of the war, with 
"Remember Fort Pillow" as their battle-cry, 
General Butler in Congress, in a speech on the 
Civil Rights Bill, pronounced a glowing eulogy on 
the bravery of the Negro troops as he described 
that battle, and especially the space of three hun- 
dred yards long, and " not wider than the clerk's 
desk," in which lay the dead bodies of five hundred 
and forty- three of "my colored comrades, fallen in 
defense of their country, who had offered their 
lives to uphold its flag and its honor, as a willing 
sacrifice." We remember, with special interest, 
the "Fifty-fourth Massachusetts," whose signal 
bravery is commemorated in the volume entitled 
"A Black Regiment." We cannot forget that dur- 
ing the war for the Union, including white officers, 
one hundred and eighty-six thousand and seventeen 
black men enlisted in the service of the nation, and 
participated in two hundred and forty-nine battles. 
We cannot forget the blood of Crispus Attucks, 
nor that of Nicholas Biddle, a member of the first 
company that passed through Baltimore in April, 
1 86 1 ; we cannot forget that the first regiment to 
enter Petersburg was composed of Negroes ; we 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 377 

cannot forget that the first troops to enter Rich- 
mond were two divisions of Negroes ; we cannot 
forget that the last guns fired at Lee's army at 
Appomattox were fired by Negroes ; we cannot 
forget that the last volley of the war was fired by 
the colored troops on May 15, 1865, at Palmetto 
Ranch, Texas ; and the world will never forget 
that when President Lincoln was silent in death, 
a Negro regiment guarded his remains and marched 
in the stately procession which bore the immortal 
man from the White House. And the South and 
the world ought never to forget that when "the 
cradle and the grave were robbed to furnish men 
to sustain the Confederacy in its last terrible 
struggles," the wives and children of these Con- 
federates, who were fighting to make slavery per- 
petual, were committed to the keeping of Negroes, 
and most loyally and tenderly did they keep this 
sacred trust. 

CITIZENSHIP OF THE NEGRO. 

With the Emancipation Proclamation came the 
new birth of the Negro to American citizenship. 
The close of the war found the Negro in a distressed 
condition. He was without experience, without 
suitable clothing, without a home, and thousands 
were without a name. Their rejoicing over free- 
dom was long and loud, but then came the build- 
ing up of a race under new conditions and amid 
terrific trials. The period of reconstruction was, 
to a great degree, a period of misconstruction. 



37^ CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Evils of every kind ran riot ; the Negro was forced 
into positions for which he was utterly unfitted. 
He was given the statute book when he ought to 
have been given the spelling-book ; he was sent to 
the legislature when he ought to have been sent to 
a common school. It is easy now to criticise the 
follies and wrongs of that disorganized period. 
Many of the South refused to take part in the re- 
construction of the government, and many who 
were willing to take part were unfitted for the task. 
Bad men, both of the North and of the South, took 
advantage of the situation for personal gain and for 
political ambition. The death of Mr. Lincoln made 
the task of reconstruction enormously difficult. 
President Johnson was without the training and 
the ability of any sort for so great an undertaking. 
The government admitted the Negro to share the 
honors of citizenship, but like many white men 
who have the ballot he was not fully qualified to 
exercise the right of suffrage. He must now, how- 
ever, fully qualify himself for this high honor. 
Probably he will never be permitted to exercise 
this right, as the law, properly interpreted, de- 
mands, until he has developed in knowledge, in 
character, and in the acquisition of property. 

It will scarcely be denied that in many parts of 
the South he is practically disfranchised, and it will 
scarcely be claimed that it is wise now to insure 
him his rights at the point of the bayonet in the 
hands of United States troops. The colored man 
must accept the responsibility as well as the hon- 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 379 

ors of citizenship. He is henceforth to be a man 
among men. He must understand that no issue 
in State or national government is foreign to him. 
He has already proved his patriotism for his native 
land, and already his life is undergoing a radical 
change. With citizenship have come the sacred- 
ness of marriage and the responsibility of parent- 
hood. All the horrors of slavery are soon to be 
but a sad and terrible memory, and already he is 
interested in the education of his children, and in 
preparing competent teachers and preachers for his 
race. The day of jubilee over freedom is giving 
place to the stern realities of work which will fit 
him for that freedom. He is turning from his 
semi-civilization to the duties of the living present 
and the hopes of the mysterious and glorious fu- 
ture. Already he is learning that "man shall not 
live by bread alone." He is now passing through 
the fiery trials incident to freedom and precedent to 
growth in all the elements of civilization. 

It was said at the time of his emancipation that 
the Negro would perish in freedom, but this proph- 
ecy facts utterly disprove. The race has almost dou- 
bled since the issuance of the Emancipation Procla- 
mation. The time may yet come when he will be 
the most numerous race on this continent. It has 
been said that the Negro ought to be deported, 
but by the time the ships had returned for a second 
load the births would be greater than the numbers 
the ships had carried away. Race prejudice must 
give way as the Negro develops character and se- 



38O CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

cures culture and wealth. Without wealth he can- 
not have leisure, and without leisure he cannot 
fully develop intellectual power, and without in- 
tellectual power he cannot make needful progress. 
We must recognize his rights as a citizen. He is 
not to be the subject of pity ; he simply asks jus- 
tice. More he does not ask ; less we ought not to 
give. He is now bound up with us for weal or 
woe in the history of the American Republic. He 
is an American of the Americans. Ignorant, su- 
perstitious, and immoral as many Negroes doubt- 
less are, they are far more worthy of the honors of 
citizenship than thousands of priest-ridden immi- 
grants from countries dominated by the papacy. 
A thousand times better would it be for us to trust 
our future to the patriotic, loyal, heroic Negro, 
than to the inflammable communist, the dynamite 
nihilist, and the ignorant and un-American Ro- 
manist 

BORN TO SCHOLARSHIP. 

The Negro has been born again to scholarship 
also. The tendency of slavery was to blot out 
every element of humanity. Only as it made the 
Negro less a man and more a brute did it maintain 
its supremacy. There were affectionate and Chris- 
tian masters, and they treated their slaves with 
marked kindness. But a careful examination of 
their kindness will show that it was, to a great 
degree, such kindness as would be shown to do- 
mestic animals, rather than that which springs from 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 38 1 

a sense of brotherhood with the Negro. In most 
cases his ignorance, at the time of the emancipa- 
tion, was as dense as the African forests and as 
black as his own skin. Touching is it to learn of 
his anxious desires to acquire knowledge. Men 
who had preached the gospel for fifty years were 
found in the schools established by the noble Gen. 
O. O. Howard, by our grand Home Mission So- 
ciety, and by the various denominations, studying 
with little children that they might learn how to 
read the name of Christ, who had bought them 
with his precious blood. 

Marvelous are the possibilities and the achieve- 
ments of this abused race. A new day has dawned 
upon the Negro of America and of the world. A 
nation has been born in a day. The Negro has 
an inborn love for music, he has a remarkable mem- 
ory, and an eloquence in speech that never fails to 
stir his countrymen. The American Negro in these 
days is not the African Negro in his degraded days. 
The American Negro is quite another product. He 
is civilized, Americanized, and largely Christianized. 
He is Anglo-Saxonized to a great degree. In many 
cases the so-called Negro is more Saxon than Ne- 
gro. He is racially, nationally, educationally, and 
religiously a new creature. His actualities are mar- 
velous to men ; his potentialities only God can 
rightly estimate. Our Negro students are pushing 
forward with a vigor and success as inspiring as 
wonderful. All the great colleges of the North are 
open to the Negro ; Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chi- 



382 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

cago, Rochester, and Hamilton offer a helping hand. 
There is no treasury of wealth in library, or museum, 
or in brain of professors, to which he is not wel- 
come. He has already won honors in the most 
famous colleges of America and of the world. He 
has proved his ability as a scholar as truly as his 
bravery as a soldier. He is climbing up the 
heights of fame and soon will stand upon its sun- 
kissed summit. 

The schools established by the various churches 
in the South are regenerating the Negro race. 
Money has been poured with lavish hand into the 
building and conduct of these schools. Men of the 
North have made their names immortal because 
of their gifts to their black brothers and sisters. 
Call the roll of our Southern Baptist schools for 
the Negro ; it is an honored and immortal roll. 
Some of the noblest men and women in the Bap- 
tist ranks have associated their names with these 
schools. Men and women who now wear the 
crown of glory, have found that crown resplendent 
with stars because of their work for their black 
brethren. Men and women still among us have 
their names pronounced by the rising race of 
Negroes with gratitude to God and with benedic- 
tion upon these noble donors. 

A NOBLER CHRISTIANITY. 

The Negro has also been born again to a nobler 
Christianity. Many of the race were, in a sense, 
unduly religious in their time of bondage ; they 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 383 

had a vague faith in God as a deliverer ; they had 
zeal without knowledge. Many of them still have 
more zeal than knowledge. Many have largely 
separated between an exciting religious experience 
and a practical morality. Many of them are to 
this hour largely under the influence of African 
paganism and its unwholesome traditions. But a 
brighter day is dawning ; a brighter day has already 
dawned. This true Christianity is closely allied to 
the new scholarship of which mention has been 
made. The two cannot be separated. Ignorance 
may be the mother of gross superstition, but never 
of true devotion. True scholarship must ever 
kindle its torch at the cross of Christ ; true disciple- 
ship must ever study in the school of Christ, which 
is the noblest university. But these colored people 
labor under great disadvantages. Practically, the 
great universities of the South are closed against 
them ; practically, many of the great trades in the 
North are closed against them. They are a de- 
spised race ; they struggle against great odds ; they 
are handicapped in every step they take. They 
are shut out from many profitable trades and help- 
ful labor organizations. Many army officers, when 
discussions arose regarding the recruiting of Ne- 
groes, declared that they would never serve in the 
army with Negroes, whom they invariably called 
"niggers," as so many to their own dishonor still 
do. 

When we consider their disadvantages we are 
simply amazed at the progress they have made. 



384 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Has not the time come when the Christians of the 
South may join hands with the Christians of the 
North for a greater uplifting of the Negro people ? 
Baptists of the South must, and we believe will, 
join hands with their brethren of the North for the 
sake of a common country, a common flag, a com- 
mon faith, and a common Lord, to give the Negro 
all his rights, to remove from him all his disabilities, 
and to start him afresh on the path of national and 
Christian progress. Out of the eight million Ne- 
groes in the South about one million five hundred 
thousand are members of Baptist churches. It is 
safe to say that about four millions, or one-half of 
the entire number, are directly or indirectly under 
the influence of Baptist teaching. A tremendous 
responsibility is thus laid upon us as a denomina- 
tion in regard to the Negro race. With an en- 
thusiasm for humanity, with loyalty to our catholic 
and apostolic faith as Baptists, and with fervent 
devotion to Jesus Christ, who died for men of all 
colors, we must lay ourselves on the altar of serv- 
ice for the Negro at this crucial moment. 

THREE REASONS. 

Three great objects will soon be attained if we 
do our full duty to the black man of the South. 
First, he will save us from the dangers of sectional- 
ism. Christ put a little child in the midst of war- 
ring disciples to teach them lessons of humility, do- 
cility, and loyalty. God has put these millions of 
blacks in the midst of Baptists North and South 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 385 

that they may forget their sectionalism and think 
only of their duty to their fellow-men and to their 
common Lord. I believe in every drop of my 
blood that God has wonderful possibilities, nation- 
ally and religiously, at this moment to be accom- 
plished through the instrumentality of the Negro. 
Baptists North are proud of Baptists South ; those 
of the South of those of the North. At Dallas, 
Texas, a committee has just been appointed to 
consult with Northern brethren regarding plans for 
common work for the Negro. This is a hopeful 
indication. We shall meet this overture in the 
spirit of love and loyalty to our black brothers and 
to our divine Master. 

The time has surely come when all true Baptists 
of the South will feel that helping in the support 
of our Southern schools is alike their duty and 
their privilege. They must not, they will not 
longer remain even partially indifferent to the 
work of these schools ; and they will no longer 
even apparently ostracise those who work for the 
Negro. All their interests as American citizens 
and as Bible Christians compel them to take hold 
of this work and to lift the Negro to his true place 
as an American citizen and as a Bible Christian. 
No method of work which denies to the Negro the 
honors of manhood, the rights of brotherhood, and 
the blessings of Christhood can ever be considered 
by true brethren either North or South. Standing 
beside the Negro we shall declare with an emphasis 
born of human sympathy and Christian devotion, 

z 



386 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

that whether a man be white or black, " a man's a 
man for a' that." God grant that even now we 
may see the eastern sky colored with the crimson 
and gold of a new day, proclaiming that sectional- 
ism is dead and buried in a grave so deep that it 
shall never know a resurrection, and that Baptists 
North and South will work with an enthusiasm and 
a consecration for the honor of Christ and for the 
uplifting of the black man to the highest citizen- 
ship, the truest brotherhood, and the noblest Chris- 
tianity ! 

A second reason for doing our full duty to the 
Negro is that he may yet protect us from anarch* 
ism. The dangers from anarchism to this republu 
are real and at times menacing. Both great polit 
ical parties must put into their respective platform* 
planks favoring restricted immigration. The time 
was when we needed population. We urged men 
of every class and from every country to come to this 
land. We looked upon all foreigners as possible cit- 
izens of great worth ; we regarded all as probable 
Lafayettes, Steubens, and Pulaskis. But that day has 
passed not to return. We have known too much 
of the anti-draft riots of 1863, and of the inflam- 
mable material sent to us from Italy, Poland, 
Hungary, and other similar countries. We have 
made naturalization laws too lax, and we have very 
laxly administered these lax laws. Judges have, 
in the interest of party politics, admitted men to 
citizenship whose residence in America could be 
numbered by hours rather than by years. Fraudu 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 387 

lent certificates and wholesale perjuries have re- 
sulted in the naturalization of ignorant, superstitious, 
and un-American foreigners. 

Latterly the quality of immigration from Sicily, 
Southern Italy, Russia, Poland, and Hungary has 
made the earlier immigration seem, by contrast, 
almost a desirable acquisition. The time has come 
when we must cease to make America the dump- 
ing ground for the worst populations of Europe. 
We must teach foreigners that liberty is not license, 
and that the hand of law in a republic can be as 
heavy, when lifted against the lawless, as under a 
monarchy. We must insist upon it that we shall 
not import anarchy and dynamite by shiploads. 
We must learn that Ellis Island is the place to begin 
when we would stop lawless outbreaks in the min- 
ing regions of Pennsylvania. God in heaven save 
America from the floods of ignorance, superstition, 
and savagely that have been pouring for the past 
few years into our beloved land ! We must insist 
upon having Americans for America. 

Just at this point the Negro has a great mission 
to perform. He is a true American, as are but 
few in this land. He came to us on a Dutch 
man-of-war in 1619, when fourteen or twenty 
Negroes were offered for sale to colonists in Vir- 
ginia, in August of that year. Virginia thus, 
through her English colonists, was the mother of 
slavery as well as the mother of presidents. Eng- 
land, in all her colonies, was only too ready to use 
the strong hand of power against a weaker people. 



388 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

God forgive the North and South, Britain and her 
colonies, for the sin of slavery ! Negroes are, there- 
fore, as I have said, Americans of Americans. They 
have been the sufferers of wrong rather than the 
perpetrators of wrong. It was Irish and other 
mobs which created the anti-draft riots, which 
hung Negroes to the lamp-posts in the city of New 
York, and which destroyed Negro orphan asylums. 
The day is coming when the Negro will once more 
be the supporter of distinctively American institu- 
tions as in the days of the Revolutionary War, 
when he fought at Bunker Hill ; as in the days of 
1 812, when he fought in New Orleans and on Lake 
Erie ; and as in the days of the Rebellion, when 
he baptized American soil with his loyal blood. 

The Negro has still a great mission to perform 
for the elevation of his own race, for upholding the 
American flag, honoring the American Constitu- 
tion, and perhaps protecting America from anarch- 
ism, socialism, Romanism, and other isms equally 
dangerous and terrific. He is an example, where 
he has had a fair opportunity, of industry, economy, 
and success. During all these hard times in the 
city of New York, and in the country as a whole, 
the number of Negroes who are beggers and 
paupers has been gratifyingly small. It fell to my 
lot, as the pastor of the Calvary Church, to be the 
channel for giving supplies during a period of six 
weeks to three thousand of the poor in New York. 
Not one family of colored people asked help ; to 
one colored widow help was offered by me and not 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 389 

solicited by her. Not once, during all these try- 
ing weeks and months, have I been solicited for 
alms on the street by man, woman, or child of the 
Negro race, although I have been asked six times 
in a single walk from my study to my home by 
representatives of another race and faith. 

Third, the Negro may yet be our chief protec- 
tion against a dangerous ecclesiastico-political Ro- 
manism. It is a fact comparatively little known 
that Romanism is responsible for African slavery. 
This fact ought to be proclaimed. In 1442 the 
Portuguese under Prince Henry captured some 
Moors on the Atlantic coast of Africa. These were 
afterward exchanged for Negroes and a quantity of 
gold dust, and soon some slave ships were built 
and some Negro slaves were brought into Spain. 
But the vast territory known as the kingdoms of 
Benin, of Dahomey, and of Yoruba, was later vis- 
ited, and these kingdoms finally gave more people 
into American slavery than any other part of Africa. 
These Negro empires once were intelligent and 
powerful. Here were a social state and a political 
government of an orderly people. In 1485 Al- 
fonso de Aviro, a Portuguese, discovered Benin 
and established settlements of Portuguese. When 
he returned to the coast of Portugal an ambassador 
from the Negro king of Benin went with him ask- 
ing for Christian missionaries for his people. Fer- 
nando Po was sent to the Gulf of Benin. He 
ascended the river of the same name to Gaton, and 
there located a Portuguese colony and soon estab- 



390 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

lished the Roman Church. Men with the spirit of 
the Jesuits of a later day followed him, and at once 
had the king partly under their control. The king 
offered to turn over all his subjects to the Roman 
Church, provided the priests would give him a 
white wife ; and their part of the contract these 
missionaries undertook to perform. A strong 
appeal was made to various sisterhoods to furnish 
a wife for the Negro king in order to lead him and 
his people into the Roman Church, and one sister 
finally agreed to accept the hand of the swarthy 
ruler. Her name is not known, but surely she 
ought to have been canonized. The missionaries 
worked with a will, but sickness and death swept 
away the Portuguese as with the fiery breath of 
lightning. But they established the slave trade. 

Soon, however, in the minds of these untutored 
savages there was some contradiction between a 
Christian church and a slave-pen under one man- 
agement. The inhuman treatment given to the 
people led them to doubt the sincerity of the mis- 
sionaries, and it is stated that to-day there is no 
trace of the Roman Church in that country ; but it 
was there long enough to sow the seeds of one of 
the most gigantic evils the world has ever known. 
It laid the foundation of the slave-trade, whose 
cruelties were so terrible that one's heart grows 
sick as he reads of them in the May number of the 
" Century Magazine." The Roman Church, in 
this instance, as later through the instrumentality 
of Columbus, showed an astounding alacrity to 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 39 1 

seize innocent savages and to subject them to 
inhuman slavery. The slave-trade, having been 
established by Roman missionaries, was followed 
up by the natives themselves. They left their fish- 
nets, their cattle, their fields, and their villages, and 
went forth to battle against their weaker neighbors, 
and their prisoners of war they sold to slave-dealers 
for rum and tobacco. They became thieves and 
murderers in order to secure slaves for this Satanic 
market. This was the real beginning of African 
slavery ; this was the first enduring contact of the 
Roman Church with this dehumanizing crime. 

What was the last semi-official relation of this 
church to slavery ? The years passed ; the slaves 
groaned and died in bondage. Chief Justice Mar- 
shall died in 1835, ar *d the President appointed 
Roger Brooke Taney his successor. A year later 
the nomination was confirmed in the Senate. In 
1857 the Dred Scott case was decided. In that 
decision Judge Taney affirmed that the patriots of 
the Revolution and their progenitors regarded the 
Negro race as so far inferior that they had no 
rights which white men were bound to respect. 
President Buchanan knew the decision before it 
was promulgated, and he shaped his inaugural 
address, delivered March 4, 1857, accordingly. 
He believed that this decision would speedily and 
finally settle the whole question of slavery. He was 
a prophet, for this decision led, in no small part, 
to the Civil War, and then God settled the question 
by the arbitrament of the sword. Judge Taney 



392 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

was a loyal son of the Roman Church ; that church 
sowed the seeds of African slavery, and after the 
lapse of hundreds of years, in the person of this 
judge, it erased the last trace of manhood, and 
shattered, apparently, the last hope of freedom on 
the part of the despised and hated Negro. The 
world cannot shut its eyes to these terrible facts, to 
this long line of infamy begun in Africa and ended 
in America. 

Once more Romanism is trying to enslave the 
Negro. It would put on his soul the chains of 
ignorance and superstition ; it would make him ten- 
fold more the child of superstition, tradition, and 
hoodooism. Every instinct of patriotism, every 
command of a pure Christianity, and every Baptist 
obligation call upon us to save the Negro from the 
bondage of Romanism. Ethiopians early came near 
to the divine Lord ; for as Jesus Christ was being 
led away to Calvary his persecutors and crucifiers 
laid their hands upon Simon of Cyrene. Many 
commentators believe that he was a Negro, and 
many of the most celebrated pictures of the cruci- 
fixion represent him as a black man, and give him 
a prominent place in this most tragic scene. Bap- 
tists early were brought into contact with Ethio- 
pians ; for Philip baptized the noble treasurer of 
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. 

Who to-day will be the next American Baptist 
who will make his name immortal by generously 
endowing some or all of our Baptist colored schools 
in the South ? Who will be the associate of the 



THE REGENERATION OF A RACE 393 

noble men and women whose honored names these 
institutions now bear ? Never was a grander op- 
portunity laid before the denomination than the 
providence of God now gives us in connection with 
the Negroes of the South. God Almighty lays 
upon us the tremendous responsibility, and he offers 
us the golden opportunity. Who to-day will follow 
where God leads ? Who to-day will walk by the 
side of Simon bearing the cross of Christ and win- 
ning the crown of American patriotism, of Negro 
gratitude, and of divine benediction ? 

God has given us in General Morgan a noble 
leader in this work. A brave soldier, a trained 
educator, a trusted statesman, a loving brother, a 
true patriot, and a consecrated Christian, God has 
eminently fitted him for his position. His superb 
service for the Government, as the ablest Commis- 
sioner of Indian Affairs we have ever had, grandly 
completed his training for still greater achieve- 
ments. He honors the position so nobly filled by 
his worthy predecessors, and under his administra- 
tion the American Baptist Home Mission Society 
will do still grander things for the Negro, whose 
best interest it has always so patriotically and 
Christianly sought and secured. 

We are builders of a nobler cathedral than that 
of Cologne, just completed after centuries of patient 
waiting. Jesus Christ is the divine-human archi- 
tect. The New Testament gives us the immortal 
plans ; and out of the world's quarry we are hewing 
the living stones. Black as truly as white marble 



394 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

and granite enter into this noble structure. Silently 
it is going up in the sight of men and angels. One 
day the capstone will be laid, and amid the songs 
of saints and seraphs there will be no voices sweeter 
than those of our black brethren who so long illus- 
trated the prophecy of Scripture, " Ethiopia shall 
stretch out her hands unto God." Their songs 
and ours shall be, " Not unto us, but unto thy name, 
O Jesus Christ, who alone art worthy, shall be all 
the glory now and forever." Amen. 



XVII 

THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE 
MINISTER. 1 

THE task which I attempt is delicate and dif- 
ficult. Various conceptions are honestly 
entertained regarding the true sphere of preacher 
and pastor ; and these conceptions, doubtless, 
change somewhat from year to year and perhaps 
from decade to decade. It is possible, however, to 
lay down a few general principles which perhaps 
the majority of pastors in evangelical pulpits will 
endorse. 

THE MINISTER A STUDENT OF GOD'S THOUGHTS. 

We may say, in the first place, that the minister 
must be a student of the thoughts of God in their 
manifold revelations. He certainly must know 
before he can teach ; and in order to acquire truth 
he must realize that he is a student in a wide field 
of knowledge. All knowledge is his province, so 
far as opportunity will permit him to acquire that 
knowledge. Knowledge gathered from every quar- 
ter can be made useful in declaring the glorious 
gospel of the blessed God. Three departments of 
knowledge may here be stated. 

1 Delivered at the Convocation of the University of Chicago, 
October, 1896, and before the Robinson Rhetorical Society, Ro- 
chester Theological Seminary, May 12, 1897. 

395 



39^ CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The true minister must be a student of God's 
thoughts as they are revealed in creation. This is 
a vast volume ; it contains numerous chapters. It 
reaches from sea to sea, from heaven to earth. It 
vocalizes earth and air, sea and sky ; but no man 
can do more than master the alphabet of this vol- 
ume. The infinitely great and the infinitely small 
are equally within its province. It demands the 
use of telescope and microscope. We must rec- 
ognize God as the Author of creation as truly as 
of revelation, in the more technical sense of that 
word. We have been unwise in supposing at 
times that we exalt the God of the word by de- 
pressing the God of the world. There is no con- 
tradiction between God's revelations in the two 
great volumes of creation and revelation ; the God 
of Genesis speaks the same language as the God 
of geology. There may be contradictions between 
our interpretations of God's thoughts in this two-fold 
revelation ; but there is no contradiction between 
the revelations themselves. This thought is beau- 
tifully illustrated in the nineteenth Psalm. In the 
first six verses of the psalm we have a statement of 
God's glory in the natural creation ; and beginning 
with the seventh verse we feel that we have come 
into a new atmosphere, and that our feet are stand- 
ing on the solid rock. That verse opens with the 
words, "The law of the Lord is perfect." We 
have in the first six verses God's revelation in na- 
ture ; we now have God's higher revelation in the 
inspired word, but both belong to the same system 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 397 

of religion. Both illustrate the perfection and 
glory of the same divine Author. A true friend of 
religion claims the glory of God in nature as well 
as in the Bible. 

When we come to the twelfth verse of that 
psalm, we have God revealing himself in the re- 
generate soul ; and the last verse is the cry of God's 
redeemed child to the Creator made known by the 
works of his hands in the opening verses of the 
psalm. There can be no contradiction between a 
true science and a divine revelation. Science is 
revelation, so far as it goes. The whole world was 
once a thought of God ; it is now God's thought 
materialized, incarnated, embodied. The moun- 
tains are God's majestic thoughts, the flowers his 
beautiful thoughts, and the stars his brilliant 
thoughts. The whole creation is vocal with his 
praise and resplendent with his glory. This thought 
gives dignity to all forms of scientific study. In 
studying chemistry we are discovering in every law 
of attraction, repulsion, and combination the 
thoughts of God. In mathematics, sines and co- 
sines, angles and triangles, are revelations of eternal 
truths of the Almighty. These truths are universal 
as gravitation and eternal as God. Every science, 
when rightly understood, is a herald of the thoughts 
of God. Other things being equal, the devoutest 
student must be the most accurate student. The 
undevout scientist is unscientific. We have a right 
to demand of the student of music that he shall be 
in sympathy with musical thoughts, sounds, and 



39$ CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

laws. The same remark applies to the student of 
art in its various forms. Not less does it apply to 
the student of natural science. No man can under- 
stand the everlasting hills except he have moun- 
tains on his brain ; no man can fully appreciate the 
sea except he have oceans in his soul ; no man can 
study, in the best sense, any department of nature, 
except he be in sympathy with the Creator who 
sits as King in nature's vast realm. 

The true minister must be a student of God's 
thoughts as they are revealed in the inspired rec- 
ord which we call the Bible. For its fullest study, 
and even its partial mastery, a vast and varied degree 
of equipment is required. The student must know 
the languages in which God's thoughts were earliest 
given to men. He must understand the terminus 
a quo and terminus ad quern of each book in the 
library which we call the Bible. But most of all 
must he be in sympathy with the spiritual atmos- 
phere which pervades this old book. Only spirit- 
ual men can truly understand spiritual things. 
We know that God is a spirit, and we know also 
that only those who possess purity of heart can see 
God. This statement is both scientific and scrip- 
tural. Every science has secrets which only its 
loving students can discover. It has occult prop- 
erties and affinities which no novice can master ; 
not otherwise is it with the Christian revelation. 
Sir Isaac Newton was right when he said to Dr. 
Halley, a man of science, but religiously an unbe- 
liever, " I am glad to hear you speak about astron- 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 399 

omy and mathematics, for you have studied and you 
understand them ; but you should not talk of Chris- 
tianity, for you have not studied it." We are told 
in Scripture that, " He that is spiritual judgeth all 
things." Often a believer on his knees can see 
farther than a philosopher on tiptoe. Locke has 
rightly, said, " It needs a sunny eye to see the 
sun " ; Goethe also has expressed a similar thought ; 
and we well know that, " the secret of the Lord is 
with them that fear him." 

We ought to be very slow in affirming, or per- 
mitting others to affirm, that there are contradic- 
tions between the teachings of God's two great 
revelations. There is a realm in which the natural 
and what we call the supernatural are one and the 
same thing. The Bible never contrasts the natural 
with the supernatural ; that latter term is of human 
and not of divine origin. The contrast in the Bible 
is always between the natural and the spiritual. 
All the discoveries of modern science are making 
it easier than ever before to believe in spiritual 
realities. There is really neither small nor great 
with God. The universality and invariability of 
law once affirmed in a triumphant tone by unbe- 
lievers and heard with timidity by believers, really 
make it easier than ever before to believe in God. 
Back of all forms of evolution is God as the great 
Evolver ; nothing can be evolved which was not 
first involved. Back of all forms of order is God 
as the divine Ordainer ; back of all law is God as 
the great Lawgiver. Law is not a motor, but a 



400 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

motion ; not a force, but a form ; not an actor, but 
an action ; and not a power, but a process. We 
do not eliminate God by putting him farther back 
in the line of development. Law is only a name 
which we give to the manner in which we have 
observed some force to act. If the force is phys- 
ical, we call it a physical law ; if it is moral, we 
call it a moral law. 

There may be nothing miraculous, in the sense 
of being contrary to natural law, in the miracles 
recorded in the Bible. The discovery of electricity 
in its various applications is almost marvelous. 
What to-day is a truism, was yesterday an unknown 
phenomenon. The finger of God seems to drive 
the trolley cars through our streets. To-day 
thoughts instantaneously leap from America to 
England, passing thousands of miles under the 
mighty deep. This daily occurrence once would 
have been called a miracle ; but it is simply a 
utilization of a perfect natural law. We are greatly 
in need of a new definition of miracles. To-day 
Paris speaks to London and to Brussels through 
the telephone ; to-day New York speaks to Chicago, 
in round numbers one thousand miles away, through 
the telephone. The opening of this long-distance 
telephone marked an era in the history of inven- 
tion. The utmost pains were taken in the con- 
struction of this telephonic line. A cornet was 
brought to the receiver in New York, and every 
note was heard in Chicago, a thousand miles away. 
An editor in Chicago dictated through this telephone 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 4OI 

an editorial to a stenographer in Brooklyn. The 
presses in Brooklyn were soon printing this editorial, 
and the noise of the presses was heard in Chicago. 
Had a man affirmed these facts one hundred years 
ago he would have been burned as one who had 
uncanny relations with Satan. 

This telephone makes it easy to believe that God 
can hear and answer prayer. If a man in New 
York can talk to Chicago, not contrary to natural 
law but in perfect harmony therewith, who will 
dare say that man cannot talk to God in perfect 
harmony with natural law? A decade ago we 
would have said with the utmost emphasis that no 
man could talk to his fellow-man a thousand miles 
away ; we would have said, " it is utterly contrary 
to all natural law." It was then contrary to natural 
law, as we knew natural laws ; but we did not then 
know all natural laws — we do not know all such 
laws now. When a man says, " God cannot hear 
prayer," we may rightly ask, " How do you know? " 
The time may come when we shall understand that 
the act of hearing and answering prayer is in as 
perfect harmony with natural law as the use of the 
telephone is to-day. Telepathy may yet explain 
thousands of secrets which are now profoundly 
mysterious. Marvelous laws of locomotion are yet 
to be discovered, laws whose discovery will enable 
us to girdle the earth in a few days and perhaps to 
cross broad oceans in a few hours. We have 
brought lightning from the clouds ; we use the sun 
to print photographs ; we are able to register the 

2A 



402 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

amount of heat generated by the flash of a firefly ; 
and we may yet be able to tell mechanically, as 
Dr. Holmes has suggested, the amount of good or 
evil which men exert over those who come near 
them. Our discoveries are so wonderful that they 
have ceased to excite wonder. Who will dare say 
what God can do without violating law, when man 
has accomplished such wonders in harmony with 
the higher laws lately discovered ? 

Surely it is not wonderful that God could arrest 
the course of a river like the Jordan, when man 
can change seas to fields in Holland. Surely it is 
not so wonderful that the Creator of heaven and 
earth should cause the walls of Jericho to fall, and 
that, perhaps, by perfectly natural means, pressing 
into his service laws with whose existence and oper- 
ations we are not familiar, when a little girl by touch- 
ing a button caused an explosion of the rocks in 
the East River near New York ; or when by the 
same means one could cause an explosion to-day 
which would lay Chicago, New York, Paris, or Lon- 
don in ruins. Surely it is not so wonderful that our 
inmost thoughts should be read by God when the 
X-ray can photograph a coin in a pocket-book within 
a traveling bag. A few years ago the new photog- 
raphy would have been said to be against all the 
laws of nature. Who could photograph through 
a plank ? Impossible ! Then came a quiet, plod- 
ding German ; and from his obscurity he flashed 
the Roentgen ray upon the world, and new laws 
of nature were discovered. 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 4O3 

Two men to-day, one an East Indian, the other 
partly Italian and partly English, are teaching the 
world the possibility of telegraphing without wires ; 
and soon the new telegraphy will take its place 
alongside of the new photography as among the 
wonders of the world, which will soon cease to be 
wonderful because of their familiarity. Soon all 
our senses will be vastly quickened and multiplied, 
and we shall see thousands of things now unseen 
and hear thousands of things now unheard ; and 
the whole world will be enlarged, ennobled, and 
beautified ; and we shall become more like God in 
his omniscience than once we thought it reverent to 
dream, to hope, or to pray. Natural law may yet 
show that the biblical narrative of the fish swal- 
lowing Jonah is not only historical but strictly 
scientific ; cases of catalepsy, hypnotism, ecstasy, 
and trance are almost equally mysterious ; and 
well-attested cases of hibernation, or estivation, are 
certainly not less inexplicable, according to the 
laws of nature with which we are now familiar. 
Who are we that we talk about what God can or 
cannot do ? Who are even our greatest scientists 
who presume to deny what greater scientists may 
accomplish in the near future ? 

It may be that all the miracles performed by 
our Lord will yet be seen to be in perfect harmony 
with natural laws, but laws with which at present 
we are not familiar. In changing water into wine, 
and in multiplying the loaves of bread, our Lord 
simply did what nature is doing constantly. Our 



4O4 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

Lord accelerated the ordinary natural processes. 
His unusual acts certainly were not contra-ndXuvdl, 
even though we may say that they were supra — 
supernatural. The man who opposes a divine rev. 
elation because of its affirmations regarding natural 
phenomena, might with equal propriety oppose the 
affirmations of modern science regarding any phe- 
nomenal events with which he did not chance to 
be familiar. All true science lays its crown at the 
feet of the Almighty Creator ; all true science is 
the handmaid of divine revelation. In the presence 
alike of true science and divine revelation, human 
ignorance should be modest, obedient, and reverent. 
The true student of the thoughts of God will re- 
gard the book of nature and the book of inspiration 
as revelations from the hand of the same divine 
Author. The day is coming, I firmly believe, when 
the perfect harmonization of all the revelations in 
these two volumes will be conspicuously, gloriously, 
and divinely manifested to all students of both 
volumes. 

The true minister will be a student of the thoughts 
of God as they are revealed in history. All history 
is a revelation in time of the thoughts of God in 
eternity. It is an unfoldment before the eyes of 
men of the purposes of the Almighty. No man 
can write an intelligent history of the human race 
and leave out Jesus Christ As well might a man 
attempt to write a treatise on astronomy and leave 
out the natural sun. Christ's cradle and cross are 
the pivotal points around which the great events of 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 405 

history revolve. Toward his birth historic events 
previous to his coming converged ; from it since 
his coming they have diverged. The pierced hand 
of Jesus Christ is on the helm of the universe. 
We have too much relegated God to distant lands 
and remote times. We often forget that he is as 
truly in the world to-day as he ever was in the 
past. Current events are ordered of God as truly 
as were the historic movements recorded in the 
Bible in connection with the names of the greatest 
patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. We can readily 
see the figure of the web in the loom of current 
history ; but we often fail to see the hand of God 
behind the loom guiding all its movements and 
shaping all the patterns which it weaves. We 
need constantly to remember the words of Lowell : 

Behind the dim unknown, 
Standeth God within the shadows, keeping 
Watch above his own. 

We are in need of a lectureship on the divine mean- 
ing of current events. We need a professorial or 
ministerial chair for the interpretation of the voices 
of God in the events of the week. God is speak- 
ing to the nations to-day on the banks of the 
Bosphorus, the Ganges, and the Indus, in Japan, 
in China, and in many of the islands of the sea, as 
well as in our own beloved land, as truly as he 
ever spake from Sinai or from the mount of Beati- 
tudes. No true minister can afford to be indif- 
ferent to these divine voices. We have too often 



406 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

neglected them and so have failed to shape our 
course in harmony with the divine thought of the 
hour. These are marvelous times in the history of 
the human race ; we are making history with greater 
rapidity now than ever before since the creation of 
man. May God help us to hear his foot-beats and 
to obey his divine voice in these closing days of 
the world's most wonderful century ! 

THE MINISTER A PROPHET OF GOD'S THOUGHTS. 

The true minister, in the second place, is a 
prophet of the thoughts of God as manifoldly re- 
vealed by God, and prayerfully received by the 
minister as a reverent student. The true minister 
is not a priest. The word priest should never be 
used as applying to a minister, except in the broad 
sense that all God's children are priests unto God. 
When used by the Roman Church the word is 
consistent with the fundamental idea of that church 
in its conception of the mass as a sacrificial offering ; 
but when used by Protestants, who deny tbe sacri- 
ficial character of the mass, the word is inconsistent 
as well as unscriptural. It is unscriptural when 
used by the Romanist, but it is both inconsistent 
and unscriptural when used by the Protestant. It 
is surprising that so many fag-ends of popery are 
still found in Protestant creeds ; indeed, it is not 
too much to say that remnants of heathenism are 
still found in some Christian creeds. The idea of 
the priesthood ought to be utterly foreign to all 
conceptions of the duties and functions of the Chris- 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 407 

tian minister. The priest in the old dispensation 
occupied a place in many respects very much lower 
than that of the prophet. The priest was only an 
ecclesiastical butcher. His duties required no such 
intellectual training and no such spiritual exaltation 
as those of the prophet. His work was relatively 
coarse and rude, and was possessed of elements of 
vulgarity and cruelty ; but the functions of the 
prophet were high, refined, heroic, and spiritual as 
those of the priest never could be. It is true that 
the dynasty of the priests began early and contin- 
ued long, and still lingers both in Judaism and 
Christianity. Nevertheless the functions of the 
priesthood were precisely what I have represented 
them to be. 

The prophet, on the contrary, was the reformer 
in Israel. In popular estimation the foretelling of 
future events is the chief characteristic of prophecy ; 
but this is not the dominant attribute of the Hebrew 
prophet. This is not the true thought of the He- 
brew word nabi, neither of the Greek word prophetes. 
These words have a much more comprehensive 
meaning. The nabi is the man who speaks in the 
name and by the authority of God ; he is, if we 
may so say, the voice of God to man. The word 
nabi, is derived from a word meaning " to bubble 
forth " like a fountain. He was often known by 
his ecstatic utterances. The verb which we trans- 
late "to prophesy" was occasionally used in the 
sense of ecstasy amounting to madness. The 
prophet is a fore-teller ; he is also a " forth-teller " ; 



408 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

and, still more exactly, he is a "for-teller," that is 
a spokesman. In the time of Samuel this office 
was recognized as belonging to a special class of 
men. There were schools of the prophets in which 
a distinct life was lived and a special discipline was 
given. Like Orientals generally, when they be- 
lieved they were under supernatural influences, 
these students were often wrought up to a degree of 
ecstatic excitement which expressed itself in wild 
dance and profuse gesticulation. 

Much as the Roman Church has exalted the 
priestly character of her ministers, she has not been 
indifferent to their prophetic character as preachers 
of the gospel. We know that the mass, according 
to the theory of the Roman Church, is the very 
heart of the entire system. This " real though 
unbloody offering" is the soul of the Roman faith. 
But no one can read the history of that church 
without discovering the power of its Dominican, 
Redemptorist, Paulist, and other preachers of still 
other orders. Some of these preachers undergo a 
disciplinary training of the most rigid character. 
The students in our Protestant theological semi- 
naries know nothing of a discipline so prolonged, 
so varied, and so exacting as that to which some of 
these preachers are subjected. Thus we see that 
even the Roman Church, exalting as it does the 
significance of the mass, cannot afford entirely to 
depress the importance of the pulpit and the dig- 
nity of the minister as the prophet of God. 

The true distinction now made between prophet 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 409 

and priest indicates the necessity of differences in 
education, according to the recognition of the dif- 
ferences between the respective duties of priest and 
prophet. The ordinary priest need not be a man 
of broad education. He has only to follow a pre- 
scribed ritual ; he simply has to be familiar with 
times and seasons, and with various details of 
priestly ceremonies. Priests may be, as all minis- 
ters have unfairly been called, simply christening, 
marrying, and burying machines. It is meet that 
the priest have a reasonable degree of social cul- 
ture, that he may discharge his ritualistic functions 
with some element of aesthetic propriety ; but his 
sphere is essentially narrow. The conception here 
given of the work of the minister has its influence 
also upon character. The nature of the service 
rendered by the priest is not materially injured in 
its perfunctory character by any moral defects on 
the part of the performer. The prophet, on the 
other hand, stands out in a vastly different light. 
He is to be the master of all knowledge ; he is to 
touch life at every possible point. He should be 
a man and a king among men. He must declare 
the truth with absolute fearlessness and with the 
inherent authority which truth evermore gives to its 
proclamation. All knowledge must be his prov- 
ince. 

This conception of the ministry shows that we 
want no " short-cut" courses into its dignities and 
duties. Never were the demands of the prophetic 
ministry so great as they are to-day ; never before 



4IO CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

was the competition so terrific. The minister must 
compete with the Sunday newspaper, with Sunday 
amusements in many cities, and with social attrac- 
tions in many homes, and with all forms of intel- 
lectual attractiveness in public and private libraries. 
Boy preachers seldom become men preachers. 
The inevitable penalty of undue precocity is 
speedy decay. The pastor is like a man on a 
bicycle, he must go on, or very soon go off. He 
must grow up or down. No man can afford to 
enter the ministry to-day with any kind of handi- 
cap which he can by any possibility remove. The 
young minister is serving God when he is studying 
for fuller service ; he is in the work when he is pre- 
paring for the work. We want no kindergarten 
theological seminaries. 

As a true prophet of God the minister will 
patiently acquire and powerfully declare the truth 
of God. He will understand that the best way to 
preach down error is to preach up truth. No 
prophet has a right to preach his doubts. If a 
pastor has doubts, let him tell them to God ; if he 
has truths, let him declare them to men. Men 
have doubts enough of their own without getting 
an additional supply from preachers. No man has 
a right to preach his unverified thinking and his 
untested speculations. The work of the merely 
destructive critic is comparatively easy and is cor- 
respondingly worthless. It requires but little 
talent to destroy. A child or an idiot with a knife 
or a hammer, in a gallery of paintings or a hall of 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 41 I 

statuary, could destroy more in an hour than a 
Raphael or an Angelo could create in a lifetime. 
We believe firmly in the imperial power, resistless 
majesty, and divine glory of truth. We want 
truth ; we want nothing but the truth ; and, as far 
as possible, the whole truth. No true prophet of 
God ever fears truth, from whatever quarter it 
comes and by whatsoever messenger it is brought. 
He welcomes truth as the child of God and the 
daughter of eternity ; but he must be sure that 
it is truth, and not some specious error or half 
truth which he thus welcomes. No man has a right 
to pull the roof off my house, even though it be 
only a thatched roof, unless he has a better roof 
with which he will immediately cover the exposed 
walls. We are not primarily to distinguish between 
new theology and old theology, as if this distinc- 
tion were of any great value ; what we want is the 
true theology, whether it be new or old. Let us 
patiently wait until our theories are verified. We 
need not oppose unverified theories. If still un- 
verified they are unworthy of our opposition ; if 
verified we would be unworthy of our office did we 
then manifest opposition. The only way to drive 
out darkness is to let in light ; the best way to keep 
chaff out of the measure is to fill it with wheat. 
We ought never to raise the devil unless we are 
sure we can speedily lay him ; we ought never to 
challenge him unless we are prepared to give him a 
deadly lunge. 

The true prophet will avail himself of the most 



412 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

far-reaching results of truth in every department of 
inquiry. He is willing to let every system, every 
creed, every prejudice go if it is not concordant 
with truth. He will desire expert knowledge 
wherever it can be found, but he must not implic- 
itly trust the deliverance of the so-called authori- 
tative experts. Many experts are almost necessar- 
ily narrow, and some of them, while loudly declar- 
ing their liberality, become apostles of bigotry. 
One turns to a volume bearing a well-known title 
and an authoritative name ; he there finds a con- 
clusion reached and perhaps defiantly affirmed. 
He is disposed a prima vista to accept this conclu- 
sion as the last word that can authoritatively be 
spoken on the subject, but his curiosity is somewhat 
excited and he goes back of the conclusion so 
pleasantly or so positively announced, to discover 
the premises laid down and the process of reasoning 
pursued. He immediately observes that there is a 
marvelous hiatus, an impassable gulf between the 
premises laid down and the conclusion reached. 
He is startled ; he feels that he has been victimized. 
With all due modesty he knows that he can do a 
little reasoning himself, and that the conclusion 
reached by his author by no legitimate processes of 
ratiocination is deducible from the premises. The 
reasons assigned are utterly inadequate to the con- 
clusion affirmed. The true prophet in the pulpit 
must, with all modesty, be himself an expert in 
certain departments of knowledge ; and he must 
limit the authority of other experts to the exact 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 413 

dimensions of their own domain of knowledge. 
He must also, in some sense, be an expert of the 
experts, knowing the department in which each ex- 
pert is an authority, and so classifying the experts 
and giving them only the weight to which their 
special learning entitles them. The critics of to- 
day are destroying the critics of yesterday. Pro- 
fessor Sayce has recently affirmed that the spade is 
to demolish many of the conclusions of philology ; 
that the tablets in the main establish the traditional 
rather than the modern critical view of the histori- 
cal trustworthiness of the Old Testament records ; 
that he has come utterly to disbelieve in the later 
views of the composition of the Pentateuch ; that 
he believes it belongs to the Mosaic age and was 
written chiefly by Moses ; that the literary analysis 
of the Bible is an unsafe method of reaching re- 
sults, and that he mistrusts the conclusions of the 
higher critics. Professor Harnack has also recently 
uttered his protest against many of the conclusions 
of modern biblical criticism and in favor of the 
traditional view. There are few Old Testament 
critics in our day more thorough and independent 
than Professor Klostermann, of the University of 
Kiel. Yet he, on purely critical grounds, sharply 
opposes the reconstruction scheme of the Penta- 
teuch made by Wellhausen and his school. Klos- 
termann is a critic of an advanced character as 
compared with Zatin, of Stuttgart, Rupprecht, 
and others of their conservative type ; but he in- 
sists that both the methods and manners of Well- 



4 14 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

hausen are utterly wrong. He has in a series of 
long, detailed, and able articles impeached this 
style of modern criticism. These articles were 
published in the " Neue Kirchliche Zeitschrift." 
It is an interesting conflict, this destruction of 
critics by critics. Scientific experts, in the light of 
their blunders, have become much more modest 
than were their fathers. Some biblical experts 
have not yet acquired the grace of modesty to the 
same degree as their scientific brethren. Many 
prophets of God can stand with open face, hand, 
and heart, calmly waiting for and rejoicing in 
truth while the critics are destroying one another 
in the biblical t arena. The prophet may wait, 
knowing that though nothing but the disjecta mem- 
bra of the critics may remain, the truth in its per- 
fect symmetry, spotless purity, and radiant splen- 
dor, will finally appear. Let no true student of 
God's word and church be alarmed. Some un- 
sightly scaffolds are coming down ; let them fall. 
The temple of truth in its beauty, perfection, and 
divinity is all the more transcendently and divinely 
revealed. 

The criticism which has arisen in recent years 
regarding Moses and the Pentateuch is similar to 
that which arose years ago regarding the existence 
of Homer, and the historical reality of his author- 
ship of the "Iliad" and the " Odyssey." There 
have been, as we all remember, several critical 
periods regarding him and his writings. Heyne, 
Wolf, and Niebuhr indulged themselves in several 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 415 

varieties of historical skepticism. They reduced 
Homer, as well as Cadmus and Hercules, to mere 
"symbols." It has been claimed at different times 
that Homer was merely a name given to the ideal 
patron of an association of poets (Homeroi). Some 
made the word " Homeros " mean "hostage," but 
others supposed that its earlier meaning was "one 
who connects or combines," and so was analogous 
to that of Yyasa (collector), the name given to 
the compiler of the Hindu Vedas and Puranas. 
Others gave the name the significance of " counsel- 
lor," others "follower," and still others dismem- 
bered the name, making it mean, " one who does 
not see," referring to the legend of the poet's 
blindness. 

In support of the opinion that Homer was not a 
real person, but that his poems were handed down 
by a generation of rhapsodists or professional min- 
strels, it was said that no one could remember and 
recite, in the absence of writing, poems of so great 
a length. Before the days of Wolfe, several scholars 
entertained these views. But we know that in the 
early days in Scotland bards would recite legends 
and poems by the hour and evening after evening. 
Just when this argument as to the impossibility of 
remembering poems of so great a length was used 
an English student arose who recited one or both 
of these great epics verbatim et literatim et punctua- 
tim. A similar achievement has recently occurred, 
the recitation of Dante's " Divine Comedy." 

There is no absolutely certain evidence that there 



41 6 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

were not written documents in the Greek of that 
early day. Indeed, it has been positively affirmed 
that tablets have been found among Egyptian ruins 
containing inscriptions in the Greek. of that period. 
It is also well known that blindness is usually ac- 
companied by great tenacity of verbal memory. 
We know that about the time of the Christian era 
there were critics called "Separatists," who main- 
tained that the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey " were the 
work of different poets ; but both that theory and 
its modification, brought forth by Wolfe in 1795, 
tax our credulity more than a belief in the exist- 
ence of Homer as a historical character. It is 
simply begging the question to say that no poet 
could compose and retain in memory works of so 
great a length ; it also greatly taxes our credulity 
to believe that there were many poets in Greece, 
or in any other country in any age, who could 
write as did Homer. It has been jokingly said 
that Homer's poems were not written by Homer, 
but by anothei man of the same name. If it is 
difficult to believe in one Homer, it is surely much 
more difficult to believe in a dozen Homers. The 
criticism regarding the historical character of Moses 
will have its day as did that concerning Homer, 
but both Homer and Moses will live after all their 
critics are dead and forgotten. 

It is well for many of the critics of Moses that 
he has now been a long time in heaven. When 
he was upon the earth he certainly proved himself 
to be a foeman worthy of the steel of his bravest 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 417 

antagonists. Those who tilted against him always 
suffered in the encounter. Pharaoh went down 
before Moses like lead into the Red Sea, and Jan- 
nes and Jambres, the Egyptian magicians, remain 
on the page of the New Testament as solemn wit- 
nesses to their utter defeat at the hand of Moses, 
the majestic lawgiver, the illustrious leader, the 
sublime poet, and one of the divinest men God has 
yet given to the world. Doubtless, the Pentateuch 
is, without intending any pun upon the word, a 
mosaic. Moses was a sensible man, and he availed 
himself of all accessible documents. It is barely 
possible that William Shakespeare will endure after 
Ignatius Donnelly shall have been forgotten ; so 
will Moses after his critics have been dead for cen- 
turies. One grows utterly weary of the microscopic 
criticism often applied to various parts of the Penta- 
teuch, separating it into sections with a wearisome 
display of divisional vagaries, indicated by the 
letters of the alphabet. If the plays of Shakes- 
peare, the poems of Milton, chapters of Macaulay, 
or the orations of Daniel Webster, were submitted 
to similar treatment, the authors and their writings 
would be made inexpressibly ludicrous. We need 
to be conservatively progressive, or progressively 
conservative. Let no one's faith be disturbed ; let 
no one rush to support God's Ark lest its bearers 
should stumble and it should fall. We have God's 
own triumphant word regarding his own eternal 
book, " The grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; 
but the word of our God shall stand forever." 

2B 



41 8 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

The prophet must be in living touch with his 
age. Large portions of the Old Testament consist 
of denunciations of the sins of the hour, and of 
political sermons on the relations of Israel with 
adjoining nations. We are to preach Christ and 
him crucified, but this kind of preaching includes 
every interest of the human race. When the 
words of Terence, " I am a man, and nothing com- 
mon to man is foreign to me," were pronounced in 
a Roman theatre they elicited tumultuous applause. 
The true prophet of God can say, " I am a man, 
and nothing common to men for whom Christ died, 
is foreign to the pulpit that pleads in his name." 
The pulpit ought to be the great leader in all phil- 
anthropic movements. Christian teachers ought 
not to allow infidel lecturers, or even Christian or- 
ganizations outside of the church, to surpass the 
church in all humane endeavors, philanthropic pur- 
suits, and humanizing and divinizing agencies. 

It is to the humiliation of the pulpit that it so 
often has opposed radical reform movements until 
they had become victorious, and then it had to 
take an apologetic and a cringing attitude when it 
ought to have been crowned with honor as the 
leader of the reform. The pulpit may not preach 
partisan politics ; but it must patriotically lift up 
its voice in favor of moral principles as applied to 
political parties and platforms. There is no sliding 
scale in the Decalogue. The eighth commandment 
has not been expunged from the divine law. It is 
no more difficult to understand moral questions as 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 419 

related to politics than as related to any other 
subject. It has been said that there is no place for 
the Sunday-school in politics ; it was also said by a 
brilliant Western senator that the Ten Command- 
ments and the Golden Rule were an iridescent 
dream. This senator was elected to remain at 
home to study the iridescence of his dream, while 
some Christian politicians endeavored to realize 
these high ideals in political activities. We give 
all politicians fair warning that the Sunday-school 
is in politics, and that the pulpit is in politics and 
will stand for the Ten Commandments and the 
Golden Rule as the foundation of the republic's 
hope and as the brightest glory of the republic's 
resplendent flag. The pulpit will to-day show the 
world that America stands not for anarchy, but for 
law ; not for repudiation, but for national honor ; 
not for sectionalism and dishonesty, but for patriot- 
ism, for piety, for truth, and for God. 

THE MINISTER THE IMPERSONATOR OF GOD'S 
THOUGHTS. 

In the third place, the true minister is to be the 
impersonator of the thoughts of God. He is to 
live over again the life of the Lord Jesus ; he is to 
incarnate the spirit which actuated the divine 
Master from his cradle to his cross, and from his 
cross to his throne. He is to be, in his measure, 
Christ to the world. He must, like the Master 
himself, go about doing good. He is to be the 
Shepherd of souls. He is to have in charge the 



420 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

cure of the sin-sick. He is to be a cure among 
men. He must develop a character which will give 
power to all the words of his mouth and the sen- 
tences of his pen. The power of character is in- 
calculable ; character must be behind, above, be- 
neath, and before every sermon, poem, and picture 
of artist, poet, or preacher. It is the man behind 
the words which gives them their power. It has 
been well said that, " Character is the diamond 
that scratches every other stone." Personality is 
immortal, and the personality imbued with, inspired 
by, and consecrated to, Jesus Christ is simply irre- 
sistible. Wellington said that Napoleon's presence 
in the French army was equivalent to forty thou- 
sand additional soldiers ; and it was said, "You 
could not stand with Burke under an archway 
while a shower of rain was passing without observ- 
ing that he was an extraordinary man." Franklin 
recognized that while he was a bad speaker, having 
much hesitance in his choice of words, and being 
hardly accurate in his language, his known integ- 
rity of character gave him his remarkable power 
over men. 

Behind all that any historian may say of the 
great characters of whom he writes, there is a name- 
less element which was the secret of their power 
and which no historian can describe in words. 
Charles James Fox could not be Prime Minister of 
England because England distrusted the sincerity 
of his character in his more private relations. Wil- 
liam Pitt towered above him and won the honors 



THE TRUE FUNCTION OF THE MINISTER 42 1 

which would have been Fox's but for his fatal lack 
of transparent character and assured virtue. It is 
this nameless element, as has been suggested, 
which gave power to Moses at the Red Sea, to 
Leonidas at Thermopylae, to Nelson at the Nile, to 
Wolfe at Quebec, to Washington at Yorktown, to 
Grant at Vicksburg, to Sheridan at Winchester, to 
Carey in India, to Judson in Burma, and to thou- 
sands more in other heroic crises of life. Finely 
did Emerson say, " What care I for what you say, 
when what you do sits over my head and thunders 
so loud that I cannot hear what you say? " The 
prophet of God should be as transparent as plate 
glass, and he should be as erect as the alabaster 
columns in St. Mark's in Venice. 

We need not so much more men in the pulpit as 
we need more man in the pulpit and in the pew. 
The whole world to-day is looking for men. The 
search was never so arduous and the discovery was 
never so highly appreciated as at this hour. The 
whole world has written over every profession : 
"Wanted — A man." One has put it thus : 

Wanted ; men : 
Not systems fit and wise, 
Not faiths with rigid eyes, 
Not wealth in mountain piles, 
Not power with gracious smiles, 
Not even the potent pen : 
Wanted ; men. 

No profession is more in need of manhood of 
the highest order than the profession of the minis- 



422 CURRENT QUESTIONS FOR THINKING MEN 

try ; only the great God can estimate the power of 
such men in their own churches, in their own de- 
nominations, and to Christianity and the world in 
their broadest reaches. Such men give direction 
to the thoughts of their generation ; they interpret 
God to men, and men to themselves. They open 
vast possibilities to churches and communities. 

My heart grows tender as I see a body of young 
men going out into the ministry. Subtle tempta- 
tions await them ; marvelous possibilities beckon 
them forward ; glorious opportunities stand before 
them with open doors ; but terrible precipices are 
near all these grand possibilities. They must ever 
sit as students at the feet of Jesus Christ ; they 
must ever be brave in declaring the truth as proph- 
ets of God ; and they must, above and beyond all 
besides, be true to themselves, to their calling, and 
to their God in their innermost souls. If true to 
themselves in the highest sense, as the great drama- 
tist has taught us, they can never be false to their 
fellow-men. May God help us to walk worthy of 
our high calling, of our sublime possibilities, and 
of our divine and enthroned Prophet, Priest, and 
King, the peerless, glorious, divine Jesus Christ ! 
Of every minister of Jesus Christ it ought to be 
said, in some measure at least : 

The elements 
so mixed in him that nature 

might stand up, 
and say to all the world : 

'This was a man.' 



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